Our Platform
This campaign is built on a simple vision. When our needs are met and the rich pay their fair share, we’ll build a stronger Western New York for generations to come. A healthy, housed and affordable Western New York is won together—I’ll be our advocate in Albany.
Housing
Rent continues to rise, and home ownership has never been more expensive. Whether it’s rising utility costs, predatory slumlords taking advantage of desperate tenants or the continual inflation of household goods, the root cause remains the same. Corporations and landlords, in their reckless pursuit of profit, have made housing a luxury, instead of a right.
Safe, stable housing for all is essential, and I'll fight any attempts to make someone's home the profit-driven asset of some nameless corporation. I also believe in building more housing, regulating against displacement and creating the capacity for mixed-use, mixed-income zoning. This vital regulation reform must also be the foundation for government-developed and operated social housing, and for public utilities free of predatory rate hikes.
Affordability
Every day, we see our household budgets getting squeezed tighter; our bank accounts shrinking smaller; our wallets getting lighter. The cost of everyday necessities–rent/mortgage, childcare, and groceries, to name a few–continue to skyrocket, but the average worker’s wages are stuck in place. Working-class Western New Yorkers are struggling day in and day out, while corporations see record profits. The inequality gap shows no signs of shrinking.
This is unacceptable. We must stand together to fight corporate greed. For too long, workers–the ones who create the profit in the first place–have not seen the fruits of their labor. I’ll fight for higher wages, higher corporate taxes and to put the power back in the hands of everyday people, where it belongs.
Education
Quality education is a human right, and I believe in strong, well-funded public education that supports both our youth and those who teach them. Beyond legislation that supports strong, public pre-K through Grade 12 education, we must support teachers’ rights to collectively bargain for fair wages and sustainable working conditions. We must put an end, once and for all, to teachers self-funding school supplies, or working unpaid hours to provide a quality education to their students. To this end, I will support IDA reform that will put tax dollars back into the hands of our public schools. In addition, I am strongly in favor of legislation that provides funding for community centers and summer programming for our youth to grow and flourish.
Beyond K-12, I will fight for a tuition-free SUNY for all. Restricting access to programs that should be universal, like SUNY education, leads to bureaucratic bloat, delays in the provisioning of services and a culture of resentment toward public education. Additionally, because a college education is not the sole path toward a dignified career, I will support any and all legislation to expand trades-based education and support union apprenticeships.
Healthcare
New Yorkers know how cruel and expensive private health insurance can be. Many of us have gotten the runaround for needed coverage, feared losing healthcare during job changes or layoffs, or have even been forced into medical debt. Insurers have poured millions into blocking an innovative, single-payer healthcare system in New York, all while jacking care costs higher and higher. Medicare reform is essential, but we must go a step further to save lives.
In the Assembly, I’ll fight for single-payer healthcare under the New York Health Act. It envisions care free at the point of service, with decisions made solely by patients and health providers. Additionally, though New York has protected gender-affirming and reproductive healthcare, I’ll fight to ensure these lifesaving forms of care are also covered under a single-payer system. No more horror stories. Healthcare for all.
Democracy
Our nation has been in crisis, even before Donald Trump and his extremist crew took power. Working people–especially marginalized communities–have sounded warning bells for years that day-to-day costs were skyrocketing and our rights were eroding, all at once. Even after Trump’s disastrous first term, establishment politicians failed to right these cultural and economic wrongs; now, during “Trump 2.0,” our democracy is paying the price.
New York has a unique opportunity ahead. Will we stand by as the federal government kidnaps migrant workers and surveils our trans neighbors? Will we fear the National Guard or ICE inciting violence at work and school? Or, will New York’s public servants step up to protect essential civil rights?
Where the federal government continues to fail, New York must lead. I’ll work in the Assembly to proactively protect the rights and civil liberties of Western New Yorkers at home, work, the ballot box and beyond.