ON THE ISSUES

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These unprecedented times have come with a great deal of economic hardship. Too many Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. The supply chain crisis has induced the worst inflation seen in decades, leaving ever-fewer Pennsylvanians with access to the American dream. As your state representative, I will fight to protect workers’ rights to organize. I will protect the jobs we have in our district now and facilitate more living wage, union jobs for our communities. This supply chain crisis could have been avoided if we manufactured more right here in the 33rd District. I will fight for American-made steel, energy, and other goods that are made with higher quality and cleaner standards than anywhere else in the world. Through protecting our economic independence, we can reinforce the foundation of a strong middle class.

A strong public school education gave me the foundation to succeed and every child in Pennsylvania deserves that same opportunity. The 33rd District could not be a better example of the inequities in our education system: on one end of the Valley we have the Highlands School District which has a 100% free lunch program to address the poverty issues there. On the other end of the Valley there is the Fox Chapel School District which is incredibly well-funded. The state needs to carry its weight and add funding to the school districts that need it most. This will give every child an equal opportunity for a great education. I will also work to stop charter schools from syphoning off massive amounts (as much as 15% in the case of Highlands) of funding from our public schools.

The collapse of the Fern Hollow Bridge shows that we must revitalize our infrastructure. The passage of infrastructure funding at the federal level was a good start, but it is nowhere near enough to get Pennsylvania where it should be. Even now, there are funds provided to Pennsylvania by the federal government that are locked up and not being spent by our state legislature. As your state representative, I will fight with everything I have to secure investment in our roads, our storm drains, our public transportation, and our telecommunications network. I also want to work with Port Authority of Allegheny County to bring back a bus garage in our district and get quality public transportation, and the jobs to support it, in our community.

Healthcare is a human right, and it is time we started acting like it. Too many Pennsylvanians face high healthcare premiums and deductibles. Far too many deaths are attributable to medical error and lack of access to affordable healthcare. Pennsylvania needs to opt into any future expansions of Medicare and Medicaid, provide funding and opportunities to help Pennsylvanians struggling to access healthcare, control the sky-rocketing cost of prescription drugs like insulin, and make healthcare industry giants like UPMC pay their fair share in taxes.

Far too many of our poor and communities of color suffer in our justice system. Having worked for Pittsburgh City Council on Criminal Justice Reform, I have experience in this area and am ready to fight for change. As your state representative, I will work to improve police accountability measures, such as body cameras, which protect both the public and our police officers. On the legal front, I will work to end mandatory minimum sentencing, get public defenders more resources, and shift focus toward social justice in our legal system.

Our air and water quality here in Western Pennsylvania is some of the worst in the United States. As a state representative, I want to address the massive issues posed by the Parks Township nuclear waste site and the Plum injection site. The Parks Township site is currently home to over 4,000 metric tons of radioactive waste that poisons our air and water and the cleanup effort has stalled. The Plum injection site is a testament to the legacy of fracking in our area. Empty and porous fracking wells, like the Plum site, are injected with fracking wastewater. Those chemicals seep into our groundwater and rivers, poisoning our environment and drinking water. As your state representative, I will energetically fight to hold fracking companies accountable and clean up these sites.

Every Pennsylvanian deserves an equal opportunity to succeed, no matter your creed, color, or identity. As a state representative, I will work to pass the Equality Act and finally outlaw discrimination in housing, healthcare, and employment for members of the LGBTQ+ community. In addition, economic empowerment is the key to helping everyone succeed. I will fight for living-wage jobs, protect the rights of workers to organize, and push for investment in infrastructure. Through this empowerment of our workers, we will provide every person in our community a chance to achieve the American dream. And I will always fight for the equality of women, including protecting a woman’s right to choose.