Labor Rights & Economic Justice

Every worker deserves a living wage, safe working conditions, and the right to organize their workplace. Whether you’re a labor leader, a rank-and-file union member, an independent contractor, or a nonunion employee, I will work alongside you. If we want to repair our communities and bring about economic justice, we need to start by addressing the needs of workers.

  • Fight for a $15/hour minimum wage and the right to easily join or form a union.
  • Work to expand collective bargaining rights, enhance workplace protections, combat wage theft, and thwart attempts to implement right-to-work laws.
  • Push for passage of the Paid Family and Medical Leave Act, which will allow Minnesotans to stay at home when they’re sick or look after a loved one without missing a paycheck.

One job should be enough.

Healthcare for All

In the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, it is unacceptable that over a million Minnesotans either don’t have health insurance or cannot afford their care. I believe that your healthcare should not be dependent upon your employment, immigration status, or income, which is why I support Senator John Marty’s single-payer proposal known as the Minnesota Health Plan.

THE MINNESOTA HEALTH PLAN

  • Covers dental care, prescription drugs, optometry, mental health services, chemical dependency treatment, medical equipment and supply costs, home care services, and nursing home care.
  • Healthcare premiums are replaced by taxes which are determined based on an individual’s ability to pay. 
  • This universal healthcare program will decrease the overall cost of healthcare for middle-class and working Minnesotans.

PROTECTING WOMEN’S RIGHTS

  • I support Senator Jen McEwen’s Protect Reproductive Options (PRO) Act, which would establish a fundamental right for Minnesotans to make their own decisions on contraception, abortion, and pregnancy.
  • As your Senator, I will oppose all efforts to roll back reproductive rights, including attempts to restrict abortion, limit access to contraceptives, and interfere with decisions that should be made between women and their physicians.

Education

Our public schools are underfunded and many students don’t have access to the world-class education that they deserve. To fix our education system, we need to invest heavily in our public schools, and we need to demand that the wealthiest Minnesotans pay their fair share in taxes in order to make it possible. Every parent should have the confidence that they can send their children to great schools and childcare programs without having to worry about cost.

CHILDCARE & PRE-K

  • Expand public education to include universal pre-k and comprehensive childcare for all children.
  • Adequately fund childcare to ensure families can find and afford the care they need while ensuring that providers can give the best possible care during a child’s earliest years of development.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS

  • Provide free school lunches for all students regardless of income.
  • Fight vigorously to defend the importance of teaching the history of race and racism in the United States.
  • Comprehensive sexual health education that teaches about healthy relationships, LGBTQ+ health, and consent.

HIGHER EDUCATION

  • Remove financial barriers and improve equity in our education system by offering free tuition for all public colleges, universities, and trade schools for in-state residents of Minnesota.
  • Explore paths to student debt forgiveness for loans held by the state of Minnesota.

BONDING PROJECTS FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS, COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES

  • Fix decaying infrastructure at Minneapolis Public Schools by securing funding to replace lead pipes, upgrade facilities, and provide students the experience they deserve.
  • Build new on-campus housing and expand existing housing infrastructure at state colleges and universities to provide affordable housing for thousands more students.

Housing for All

Every Minnesotan should have the right to safe, secure, and affordable housing. In order to guarantee housing as a human right, we must invest in the construction of thousands of new public housing units while protecting against the displacement of our most vulnerable communities. As rent goes up while wages stay the same, now is the time to take immediate action to protect current tenants and curb future rent increases. 

HOUSING FOR ALL

  • Work with local elected officials to find solutions and reduce the wait period for approval on low-income or public housing applications by supporting state bonding financing for public housing projects.
  • Provide municipal governments with the necessary tools and resources to take action to reduce homelessness at the local level.
  • Reverse the history of redlining in Minneapolis and address historical inequities in housing by removing racial barriers from housing deeds. 

 HOUSING AFFORDABILITY & RENTERS’ RIGHTS

  • Reduce zoning restrictions to allow the construction of duplexes, triplexes, and quadplexes on properties that are vacant or occupied by single-family homes.
  • Fight for a strong Renters’ Bill of Rights that protects tenants from unsafe living conditions, unreasonable rent increases, harassment, manipulation, and displacement.

Environmental Justice

Climate change threatens life on earth as we know it. It is already taking a toll on our state, with increases to lumber prices, degradation of our watersheds, and destruction of the ecosystems that Minnesotans rely on for their hunting and fishing. Decades of substandard climate policy has brought us to the brink of complete environmental destruction, but there is still time to break the cycle of inaction. Addressing climate change provides us with a unique opportunity to advance a sustainable economy, protect communities of color that have been disproportionately impacted by climate change, and create thousands of green, union jobs in the process.

RAPID DECARBONIZATION

  • Rapidly decarbonize the transportation and energy production sectors – which produce over 50% of emissions in the United States – by 2030.
  • Introduce a carbon fee and dividend system, which will place a price on carbon and return the revenue back to Minnesotans through direct cash payments.

TRANSIT

  • Expand the public transit system in Minneapolis by investing in transit operations so that everyone who relies on transit can count on frequent, reliable, and comprehensive service to get them to their destination.
  • Modernize the mission of the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MNDOT) to focus on reducing freeway expansion and instead prioritize mass transit projects.
  • Expand on electric vehicle charging infrastructure financing in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal through statewide investments to boost the production of EVs and charging stations.
  • Boost funding for an all-electric public transportation system that prioritizes reliability and interconnectedness.

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

  • I support legislation known as Prove it First, which requires any new mining proposal to undergo an independent and rigorous environmental review process conducted over the course of several years. 
  • Prevent the construction of new fossil fuel infrastructure projects and instead support the development of a renewable energy grid.
  • I oppose Line 3. We must hold Enbridge accountable for the environmental destruction they have inflicted upon Indigenous communities and across our state.
  • Take every possible action to safeguard our watersheds, particularly the Boundary Waters, which are our most precious resource.

Criminal Justice Reform

Minnesota’s criminal justice system has failed Black, brown, and Indigenous people. The unbridled power of local prosecutors has fueled an era of mass incarceration in which Minnesota has seen itself become one of the most punitive states in the country in terms of community supervision. In Minnesota, we have a highly restrictive probation system which prevents individuals on probation from becoming equal and full participants in their communities. We need to focus on making our communities safer by reducing crime, overhauling our criminal justice system, and holding police officers accountable for their actions when they violate the trust of the communities they serve.

 

CRIME PREVENTION

  • Implement universal background checks, extreme risk protection orders, and an assault weapons ban.
  • Reduce the number of guns on our streets by establishing stricter rules to obtain a concealed carry permit.
  • Support funding for youth afterschool programs to support the healthy development of Minnesota’s kids and provide an alternative to riskier activities.

POLICE REFORM & ACCOUNTABILITY

CORRECTIONS REFORM

  • Expand programs that provide support for pregnant women who are incarcerated in Minnesota prisons.
  • Prevent the transfer of juveniles into adult prisons.
  • Provide post-release assistance and record expungement to individuals who were found to have been wrongfully convicted.

RESTORE JUSTICE TO THE LEGAL SYSTEM

  • End the cash bail system, which criminalizes poverty and has no correlation to court appearance rates.
  • Implement a statewide ban on for-profit prisons to prevent a profit-based incarceration system from taking hold in Minnesota.
  • Restore the right to vote for Minnesotans who have been found guilty of a felony and have been released from incarceration

LEGALIZE CANNABIS 

  • Legalize cannabis for adult use and utilize tax revenue generated from cannabis sales to fund public health initiatives.
  • Modernize Minnesota’s medical cannabis program to improve access and affordability for qualifying patients.
  • Expunge all non-violent cannabis-related offenses and provide clemency for minor drug possession charges.