What We’re Fighting FOr

Social Justice

Our country’s struggle for progress has been defined by our fight to guarantee the rights of all and to meet our responsibility to lead with compassion and improve equality.

Now more than ever, we must fight to ensure that all who are in this country are equal before the law. We must fight to protect and empower immigrants who risk everything to become a part of the fabric of this country; their safety and security are rights they are due as human beings, not privileges extended to only the few our government deems “worthy.” We must fight any effort to roll back the hard-fought rights of LGBTQ+ people to be and become themselves and we must continue to work toward comprehensive anti-discrimination policies that ensure no one is punished for living their truth. We must fight for the rights of all women to maintain and expand their ability to make decisions about their bodies and their health without interference from the government. It is our moral responsibility to protect our most vulnerable communities, to level the playing field for those who have been marginalized and oppressed, and to ensure that justice is truly accessible for all.

social justice Issues

Economic Justice

Workers of the IL-16 deserve good, high paying jobs and a vibrant, dynamic economy. We must apply pressure to our government to invest in small businesses and job training programs that prepare people for a modern economy. We must diversify the jobs market and commit to the kinds of sustainable development that will result in long-term economic health and opportunity, not just short-term solutions to urgent problems.

We must fight for the working poor by providing access to quality, affordable housing and ensuring there are opportunities for training and education. We must fight for the middle class by strengthening consumer protections and paying attention to the issues that affect people’s lives every day; policies like paid family leave and affordable childcare. We must fight for workers’ rights by supporting unions and opposing legislation that further empowers employers at the expense of their employees.

Environmental Justice

Environmental degradation is one of the biggest global challenges we have ever faced; we have a responsibility, as a global leader, to be standard-bearers for how to address the climate crisis. From extreme weather to the compromise of our clean water, our failure to commit to a set of policies that address the environment has resulted in tangible and heartbreaking consequences.

We must build a sustainable future that provides jobs, infrastructure, and security and we need to do it now. As your Representative, I will work toward establishing factories for green industries, creating jobs that look toward the future, and expanding our bustling ecotourism industry around places like Starved Rock State Park. 

political justice

Since the Citizen’s United ruling by the Supreme Court, which allowed corporations and special interests to have uncontrolled influence over our elected officials, the residents of the Illinois 16th Congressional District have gotten less and less control over their elected officials each year. Big money donors have now come to run our government, and are one of the major reasons nothing gets done in Washington, and progress is halted before it even starts.

We have to get money out of politics and return control of the electoral process to the people, and we have to give the constituents of the 16th the kind of access to our democracy that will result in their empowerment, rather than their continued disenfranchisement.

Safety and National Security

I was 7 when my dad was deployed to the first Gulf War. It was scary. We would send him faxes with pencil drawings, not knowing if they’d ever arrive, and I remember Lee Greenwood’s “Proud to be an American” like it was a personal anthem, written for me. I didn’t understand most of what was happening, but no child is too young to understand fear. I was a freshman in high school when Columbine. Mine is the generation that has come to expect gun violence in our schools and churches, which is to say nothing of the generations of black and brown communities for whom gun violence is commonplace.

The current administration has been careless with our safety, both here and abroad. We’re governing with a vendetta, a tendency toward corruption, and a short-sightedness that compromises our security and makes us all more vulnerable.