Issues

The Democratic Party's approval rating is near the lowest in decades or on record. It is worse for Democratic members of Congress who have only a 19% approval rating. I’ve articulated to fellow Democrats that we cannot ask voters to embrace change if we refuse to change ourselves first. That disconnect is costing us trust. The way forward for Democrats is to defeat Republicans while sending new leaders to Washington with a greater sense of urgency and accountability for the working class. Rep. John Garamendi has been a reliable vote and representative on many progressive issues that I care about. However, it is too problematic that he is missing hundreds of votes in Congress and has been one of its most absent members for several years now. We cannot afford such risks with razer thin margins in the House. I also fault him for failing to hold town halls or appear at protests in person in the same period. This is not the kind of representation we deserve, and I believe constituents are ready for the Democratic Party and CA-08 to pass the torch to new leadership. 

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I promise to: ​

• Win back our country and build a future based on new ideas, experience, urgency for change, and progressive issues. 

• Hold regular town halls and attend community events, in person. 

• Conduct a listening tour to restore our district's feeling of being heard. 

• Work with Rep. John Garamendi to ensure critical legislative and constituent work progress through transition. 

Most Americans now believe our government is corrupt. Unfortunately, this is based on a strong degree of truth. Elections are bought through SuperPACs while our representatives are insider trading. Lobbying and revolving doors mean industry regulates our government, not the other way around. As a result, our government serves the wealthy, large corporations, and special interests rather than on behalf of American citizens. 

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I will: ​

• Overturn Citizens United to end corrupt elections.

• Ban stock trading in Congress.

• End gerrymandering.

• Close revolving doors.

• Rebuild a more independent government that responds effectively to the needs of the People. 

The state of housing in California is past the breaking point. The overwhelming cost of housing also means intransigent homelessness, young people cannot afford to start families, our elders are at risk of poverty in their retirement, and other unbearable cost of living conditions. Meanwhile, developers tend to only build either distant single-family housing that deepens sprawl, or dense, short-term apartment projects optimized for profit rather than long-term family life. By phasing out unfair deductions and loopholes that reward vacancy, rent extraction, and speculative development models that prioritize quick returns over livable communities, we can restore housing’s true purpose: shelter, community, and stability.

 

I will: ​​

• Coordinate regional participation in housing development. 

• Expand HUD funding and public housing construction. 

• Reform the tax code to drive out investors from treating housing as an investment vehicle. 

• Open supply chains for housing materials. 

• Ensure the incentives of cities, investors, and developers are aligned to build dense, large, durable, and quality housing integrated with commercial space to reduce the strain of sprawled housing developments on municipal budgets while simultaneously improving residential quality of life. 

The state of healthcare in America is indefensible. Millions remain uninsured or underinsured, costs continue to skyrocket, and families face bankruptcy for simply getting sick. We are the only developed country with a system like ours and we shouldn't tolerate it. Employers and workers alike shoulder crushing premiums, while pharmaceutical and insurance companies extract billions in profit. Healthcare should not be a privilege, but a public guarantee.

 

I will: 

• Establish a universal, single-payer system, like "Medicare for All". 

• Reduce the price inefficiencies of middlemen and private insurers. 

• Negotiate fair drug prices. 

• Tax billionaires to fund direct care, prevention, and medical innovation. 

The United States of America has an indispensable role as a leader among other free countries in the world. Our power can be used to defend allies, markets, liberty, and democracy, or, in the wrong hands, it can be used to dominate and destabilize others. Regretfully, we have used power in ways that erode our reputation and worsen the world. We have undermined our allies and NATO while aligning with dictatorships. We have withdrawn our commitments to multilateral organizations and international institutions. We have become complicit with genocide in Gaza. We have violated the international sovereignty of other countries by engaging illegal bombings and wars and kidnapping and killing world leaders. We have continued to use Guantanamo Bay for extra-Constitutional actions. These actions devalue the U.S. dollar and increase the chances for wars that will kill Americans.

 

I will: ​

• Restore our nation's ideals in American foreign policy.

• Reaffirm our liberal values and financial commitments to our allies and the United Nations. 

• Recommit the United States to global human rights and development programs.

• Renew our credibility as a good faith partner in international relations.

• Repair the lost trust and faith in the international system. 

The Bay Area stands at the front line of the climate crisis. Our oil refineries are closing, our agricultural regions are drying and flooding in the same year, and the workers who literally power California’s economy will be left behind if nothing is done. Entire industries are being reshaped by forces far larger than any one county, yet our policies remain reactive and piecemeal. We cannot allow climate action to mean community abandonment. A "Green New Deal" for the Bay Area would mean investing in a just transition by rebuilding the economic foundation of our refinery towns, retraining workers for clean energy industries, and restoring agricultural resilience through sustainable water, soil, and energy practices.

 

I will: 

• Pass the Green New Deal.

• Build clean energy supply chains. 

• Expand domestic renewable production. 

• Direct federal funding to regional climate adaptation initiatives led by local communities.

• Mobilize public and private investment to create new industries, new jobs, and a livable planet. 

For too long, our nation's approach to education has been to treat it as a commodity for corporate and market needs. This is wrong. Education is a public good, expands individual liberty, and is a cornerstone of democracy. Our country depends on individuals being capable of understanding the world we live in, self-governing, and finding opportunities to better their own lives and our society. That is why I support dramatically improving the national funding and standards of public education. To do so, we will need to close the gaps between wealthy and under-resourced districts, strengthen support to teachers and school staff, and ensure civic education has a primary place in among our nation's pedagogical priorities. In addition, it is worth noting that the aggregate amount of student debt in America is reaching $2 trillion. Americans' futures, and the economy itself, cannot continue to sustain this amount of debt. Among the principal reasons for this much debt are the low subsidization of public education and high interest rates.

 

I will: 

• Free Americans of their unreasonable debts to obtain education and training. 

• Rebuild the Department of Education to greatly increase national funding for schools and improve standards. 

• Reduce public funding for privatized education and prevent charter schools from using selective enrollment practices. 

California Forever's current plans are outrageous in scope and scale and need to be brought to heel. Make no mistake, they are working to subvert public will and corrupt local governments to build a corporate city without adequate democratic oversight and extract value from its residents, the productivity of the region, and public finances. As a result of their own actions, there is little reason to trust them to do anything other than build a neo-Feudalistic city for their own profit. While it's true that they are within their legal rights to purchase land and pursue development, they are not entitled to public financing or federal investment without clear, enforceable commitments to democratic governance, transparency, and the public interest.

 

I will: 

• Organize our local governments and communities against oligarchy.

• Use oversight powers available in Congress to hold California Forever accountable to We the People. 

Immigration to the United States has always been among the principal contributions to our greatness. We are all immigrants if we are not indigenous, and we should share the same opportunities we had with others who continue to believe in the American Dream and strive for a better life here. Instead, the Trump administration is using its stated goals of reducing immigration to advance its implied fascistic goals: the conversion of the United States into a white supremacist nation state, and the expansion and deployment of ICE in American cities are its tools of political violence to intimidate and punish citizens opposed to its authoritarian status.

 

I will: ​

• Reform and open the immigration system to allow anyone with the goodwill to become an American to enter and succeed legally and fairly. 

• Punish domestic industries who criminally incentivize and employ illegal immigrants as a form of indentured servitude.

• Fight this administration and politicians who scapegoat immigrants for our problems to build a secret police force and overturn our democracy. 

Democrats must clearly and unequivocally defend women and LGBTQIA+ people, and anyone targeted by gender-based hatred and discrimination. Protecting vulnerable communities from all forms of hate and violence is not a fringe issue, and it’s not a political liability. Meanwhile, the Republican Party and its allies have openly targeted trans people, women, and queer families with dehumanizing rhetoric and punitive laws. Calling people “groomers,” attacking reproductive freedom, and stoking fear around gender expression is not about protecting children. It is dangerous, dishonest, and fundamentally incompatible with democracy, and the fact that this still feels controversial is deeply disappointing.

 

I will: ​

• Promote and endorse women for positions of power.

• Elevate women's issues and advance gender equality. 

• Codify and protect reproductive rights to abortion and healthcare. 

• Protect other vulnerable classes of Americans against gender-based forms of discrimination and hate. 

Our veterans deserve recognition and respect for their service, and these should be reflected in the public benefits and services that they earned. My late grandfather was a veteran of the Vietnam War, and the benefits he needed were always available because the commitments we made to him were also honored. So I find it deeply troubling and unconscionable that the Republican Party's Big Beautiful Bill made cuts to these services and worsened the care veterans should be entitled to.

 

I will: ​

• Prevent further privatization of VA services and guarantee adequate public funding towards healthcare, education, training, housing, social services, and community outreach. 

• Enhance VA services to provide more resources to those in need of assisted living, transportation, and community. 

Palestinians have long deserved international recognition, statehood, and belonging as perfectly equal citizens in a pluralistic democratic state of Israel. I recognize the deep history, trauma, and legitimate security concerns of Jewish people. At the same time, we must also recognize that Israel does not represent all Jewish people, and that its state powers are committed to enforcing apartheid, permanent occupation, and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the West Bank. But in Gaza, the scale of civilian death, collective punishment, engineered starvation, forced displacement, and the destruction of basic civil infrastructure like schools and hospitals, are enormous violations of human rights and the international community is justified in calling it a genocide. So let me be clear: I stand up for Palestinians for the same reasons I stand up against antisemitism: because I believe in human rights, international law, equality for all people, and especially because "never again" applies to everyone.

 

I will: ​

• Endorse legislation that supports recognition of Palestinian statehood and justice. 

• Withdraw American financial and military aid for Israel in order to rein in its violence against Palestinians in Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank. 

• End Israel's illegal wars of destruction against Lebanon and Iran and return to diplomatic solutions and partnerships. 

• Act based on the facts that the state of Israel has committed genocide, meddled in our national politics, and dragged us into unnecessary wars on its behalf. 

Social Security is the greatest program devised by Americans to end the blight of poverty in our country. Shamefully, the Social Security trust fund is being targeted by wealthy interest groups who want to privatize it and gamble our earned benefits on market uncertainty. This would put the one thing that guarantees income to millions of deserving and vulnerable Americans at risk of financial insolvency during a market crisis; precisely when they would need it most.

 

I will: 

• Vote to protect Social Security and expand it by lifting the payroll tax cap so that the most well off pay their fair share.