Issues

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Issues •

Protecting our Environment

We all depend on a clean, livable environment, and we need to address the existential threat of climate change. As State Representative, I will continue to prioritize protecting our environmental relatives, just as I did as President of the Prairie Island Indian Community.

  • Demand high standards for water quality for the health of our waters and our residents. This means addressing PFAS and other contamination, preventing further exposure, and holding polluters accountable.

  • Preserve green spaces, parks, and natural spaces. Smart growth should not jeopardize the environment.

  • We must continue to take action to reduce our carbon footprint, and we also must mitigate the impacts of the climate change that we are continuing to see happen. I’d like to see the State help support our infrastructure, in particular our stormwater management, urban-green- space preservation, sustainable development and planning.

Housing

Too many of our working families, young people, and renters are finding housing to be unaffordable. We need to expand options and increase affordability in our housing.

  • Encourage environmentally sustainable building that prioritizes both density and preserving our green spaces.

  • Expanding emergency assistance for families struggling with rent.

  • Expanding opportunities for first-time homebuyers to help build intergenerational wealth.

  • Ensuring our public housing dollars go to different kinds of housing that includes multigenerational, supportive, and senior housing.

Healthcare

All Minnesotans deserve access to affordable, easily accessible healthcare.

  • Provide more support for senior care and homecare health workers.

  • Be ready to provide expanded access to those struggling with healthcare access due to new cuts from the Trump Administration.

  • Continue to protect reproductive and gender affirming care for all Minnesotans.

Economic Opportunity

All Minnesotans deserve to live in economically vibrant, thriving communities.

  • Expand job training and support for critically underfunded jobs, especially healthcare and childcare workers.

  • Ensure options are available for all Minnesotans, not just those with traditional four-year degrees. We need to provide training for people entering trades and the Green economy.

  • Support for our small businesses and working families – when we have our other policy areas focused on serving their needs, whether it’s healthcare, childcare, or food security, we all benefit.

Transportation and Infrastructure

We all depend on safe, reliable ways of getting around. Well-planned and maintained infrastructure will pay dividends far into the future.

  • Provide bonding support for repairing our aging roads and bridges. We have deferred a lot of maintenance as a State, and it is always cheaper to repair and maintain what we have instead of waiting to respond to a catastrophic failure.

  • Ensuring our infrastructure meets high environmental standards. We want to reduce the impact that we have on our climate and our waters, and we should be mindful of that in the materials that we use to build, and the environmental impacts of the projects we undertake.

  • Build with growth in mind. This means ensuring our infrastructure keeps up with our growing population, and that the needs of all families are being met, whether you walk, bike, take transit, or drive.

Education

All of our students deserve access to a world-class education.

  • Ensure that funding keeps up with the needs of our students, teachers, and families. While we have made historic investments in the last few years, that has only helped us get back to where we were absent post Gov. Pawlenty’s cuts. This is critical to attract the best teachers, keep class sizes low, and increase educational opportunity.

  • With education being under attack at the Federal level, we need to be prepared to fill in those gaps as programming is cut, especially for our SPED students, English language learners, and American Indian Education.

  • Make sure the needs of all students are met that allow them to explore a variety of opportunities, whether it is technical education, pursuing a trade, STEM opportunities, or a traditional four-year degree.

Public Safety

All of us, regardless of our backgrounds, deserve to feel safe in our communities.

  • Expanding funding for non-police emergency response. Fully supporting our non-police emergency response is critical. It allows our responses to be tailored and flexible, and the police are better able to focus on responding to and investigating crimes.

  • Take common-sense steps on gun safety. Weapons of war should not be on our streets, we should limit magazine sizes, expand background checks for all gun sales, and categorical prohibit “ghost guns”.