Key Issues

Reforming Healthcare

Our healthcare system is in a full-blown crisis. I’ve lived it firsthand. I worked through the global pandemic as a flight attendant without health insurance. I have relied on MinnesotaCare. Some of the most frightening moments of my life came when my children were little and I had to decide whether to take them to the emergency room in the middle of the night for something as simple as an ear infection or let them suffer until morning because, like millions of Americans, I was afraid of what the bill would do to our family.

That’s why I’m proposing radical change to our healthcare system that provides Minnesotans with MORE options when it comes to healthcare to lower costs and make quality healthcare accessible to all. To fight for better healthcare for all Americans, I propose we:

Implement a nation-wide public option quickly that makes government-funded health insurance available to anyone who wants it. Employment, marriage, or luck will no longer dictate your right to affordable, accessible, and quality care.
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.
Expand Medicare’s ability to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to be able to negotiate the cost of every drug for every age and bring down costs.
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.
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. I’ll work to put strict guardrails on PE firms, increase transparency, and ensure that Wall Street has skin in the game so they actually improve the hospital system, not loot it for all its worth.
Break up Big Pharma companies who are choking our healthcare system by jacking up prices at every stage of the health care process from the doctors office to the pharmacy to the hospital.
Propose legislation that would combat RFK JR’s catastrophic cuts to NIH funding by marshaling funding for all kinds of medical research and changing the law so no out-of-control executive can ever cut it again.

Fighting Corporations and Corruption in Washington

Washington is broken. We all know it. Even as a three term legislator, I still have to work my second job as a flight attendant to make ends meet. I work for a living just like you, and lately it seems like Washington works too hard for the private jet owners and not enough for people like us. I’m not beholden to anyone, except to my constituents. When I get to Washington, I’ll work to:

Ban Congressional Stock Trading. I’ll support legislation to prohibit Members of Congress from trading individual stocks. Public office is a place to serve, not to profit.
End Corporate PAC Contributions. Members of Congress shouldn’t be able to take money from corporations more concerned with their profit lines than everyday Americans.
Crack Down on Dark Money. I’m fighting to end the flood of dark money in politics by supporting legislation that exposes secret donors, strengthens transparency, and gives the FEC real enforcement power. Billionaire-funded special interests have had their thumb on the scale for too long.
Data Centers are an inevitable reality of our changing world, but we don't have to let multi-billion (and trillion) dollar companies call all the shots. That's why I'll stand up to corporate power by protecting our water, safeguarding the energy grid, and not building data centers 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. I'll make sure corporations, not Minnesotan families, shoulder the costs of energy use and environmental impact.
Big Corporations use their power to squeeze customers, gouge prices, and hurt families. That’s why I’ll fight for stronger enforcement, antitrust action, and transparency rules to stop large corporations from unnecessarily raising prices.

Making Life Affordable for Minnesotans

Congress has too many out-of-touch multi-millionaires who don’t understand what it is like to get by in this economy, right now. I live paycheck to paycheck in an affordable one bedroom apartment. I still work as a flight attendant while serving in the statehouse and running for Congress. I know that the cost of healthy groceries, gas, and utility bills has become far too high for everyone.

When I get to Congress, I’ll do everything I can to bring down costs:

Gas and Groceries. Use Congress’ power of the purse to put an end to Trump’s tariffs which are raising the price of goods.
Crack Down on Price Gouging. Through stronger enforcement, antitrust action, and transparency rules, we can stop large corporations from unnecessarily raising prices.
I will fight for universal healthcare because it’s a human right. During the global pandemic, I went without health care because I didn’t qualify through my employer. No one should ever be forced into that kind of fear. In Congress, I will work relentlessly to guarantee quality and universal care for every American—care that is comprehensive, affordable, not tied to employment and accessible for everyone.
Lower health care premiums by restoring ACA subsidies, Medicaid, and SNAP funding that Republicans in Congress cut.
I’ll work to invest in green energy to end our reliance on oil monopolies who raise prices on our utilities and I’ll fight to bring back the renewable energy projects that promised affordable electricity for millions of Americans.
Utility bills have skyrocketed and Republicans in Congress voted to gut heating assistance which means that Americans are paying 9.2% more to heat their homes this year. I’ll work to bring down utility costs by bringing back the clean energy projects the Trump Administration cut, cutting costs for millions of Americans.
Ensuring every Minnesotan has somewhere to call home. I know firsthand that stable, affordable housing gives families the security they need to thrive. Today, greedy corporations and Wall Street speculators are pricing hardworking families out of homeownership while development lags behind demand. 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. I'll also push for increased federal funding to remove lead from homes and expand supportive housing to address homelessness, because everyone deserves a safe, healthy place to call home.

Creating Union Jobs in CD-02

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, and supported legislation investing in clean energy, natural resources protection, tree planting, air quality improvements, and pollution accountability. I authored and passed the Buy Clean bill which innovates around the use of sustainable materials in our infrastructure.
I’ll make sure that data centers in CD-02 operate responsibly, provide good family-sustaining, union jobs, and benefit our communities instead of exploiting them. The corporations must shoulder the costs of any increased energy use, and adhere to the environmental guardrails put in place to protect our water and communities.

Keeping Minnesotans Safe

We have seen an unprecedented amount of violence in Minnesota. From the devastating assassination of our Speaker Melissa Hortman, her husband Mark and their dog Gilbert, the attack on Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yevette, the Annunciation shooting, to a violent and chaotic occupation of ICE agents in our cities—Minnesotans do not feel safe.

It is my number one commitment as a state legislator and as a future member of Congress, to keep our communities safe. I will:

Stand up to ICE and seek justice. Since the federal government sent a record breaking 3,000 ICE agents into Minnesota, I’ve been on the ground standing up to ICE, delivering food, and protesting. I will not stop fighting until every person who has been harmed by ICE and the federal government sees justice. We’ve seen what the federal government is capable of doing to American cities and when I get to Congress, I’ll work to make sure this never happens again.
1. 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.
2. Congress must demand that ICE acts within existing law and put a stop to blatant violence, harassment, and discrimination.
3. 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.
4. Congress must also demand that ICE stops profiling schools and places of worship.
Advance historic gun violence legislation. In the state legislature, I authored and passed a bill that tightened Minnesota’s gun laws by making illegal gun straw purchases a felony, banning binary triggers and strengthening how gun trafficking and unsafe firearm parts are regulated to reduce gun violence. When I get to Congress, I’ll go further. I’ll work to instate universal background checks, ban automatic assault weapons, and ensure violent criminals can’t get their hands on guns.
Fighting for Every Child's Future. As a mom who worked multiple jobs to support my family, I understand firsthand the challenges facing working families. In the Minnesota legislature, I championed legislation putting full-time school counselors and support staff in every public school, supported the universal school meal program, and fought to improve student-to-counselor ratios. In Congress, I won't just restore the Department of Education, I'll strengthen it by expanding access to quality early childhood education like Head Start, increasing federal funding so states can raise teacher pay and upgrade aging school buildings, making college and trade school affordable without a lifetime of debt, and reforming student loans so borrowers aren't trapped by compounding interest.
Take action to restore and protect our reproductive rights. I’m honored to be a member of the Reproductive Freedom Caucus-a bicameral caucus at the Minnesota legislature I was proud to help codify abortion rights in our state statute, and in Congress I’ll work to protect that right nationwide. 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.