Katie Porter running for senator 2024

Katie Porter stands out as a fearless advocate for California families, renowned for her unwavering commitment to consumer and taxpayer protection. Her political career is marked by significant victories against Wall Street and corporate giants, and she’s known for her strict stance against corporate PACs and federal lobbyists.

Elected to Congress in 2018, Porter has made a name for herself by using her whiteboard to hold powerful figures accountable, leading to substantial policy reforms. Her questioning has resulted in tangible solutions, including legislation to curb corporate greed and reduce costs for families.

Her background as a consumer protection attorney and law professor, combined with her upbringing on a family farm during the farm crisis, has deeply influenced her approach to governance. Porter’s professional journey reflects her commitment to fighting for the underdog and ensuring accountability at the highest levels.

A single mother of three, Porter’s personal life as a resident of Irvine, CA, and her experiences as a parent, add a relatable and humanizing layer to her professional endeavors. Her dedication extends beyond her political work, enjoying travels and national park visits with her children, embodying the balance between her public responsibilities and personal life.

Issues

Giant corporations and special interests have too much power in our economy. They have too much power in Washington, too. Before being elected to Congress, I spent over a decade as a consumer protection advocate – fighting against corporations that made huge profits by cheating families and their workers. I saw firsthand how politicians rigged the rules in favor of those with wealth and power – at the expense of working families and taxpayers. I ran for Congress to rewrite those rules, to take on corporations, special interests, and government bureaucrats. I’ve done exactly that, and I’ve delivered for everyday people, from getting the government to make COVID testing free to closing loopholes that insurance companies used to deny mental health care.

I’m proud to be the only candidate in this race who has never taken corporate PAC money, refuses federal lobbyist money, and hasn’t funded their campaign with donations from Big Oil, Big Pharma, or Big Banks. Because what happens when politicians get too cozy with lobbyists and powerful corporations? Corruption. We don’t need another career politician who will protect the status quo. Californians deserve a leader who will shake up the Senate and get Washington working for all of us, delivering an economy that lifts up families and a society that protects the rights of all. Here’s how.

Clean Up Corruption & Shake Up the Senate: Our laws shouldn’t be bought and paid for. We need a U.S. Senate designed for the 21st century, with reforms that stop our laws and regulations from being auctioned off to the highest bidder, making leaders accountable to the people they serve.

Reform Our Broken Campaign Finance System: We must ban Senators from taking donations from lobbyists, remove dark money from politics, overturn Citizens United, and ensure lawmakers work for their constituents, not their donors.

Eliminate Pet-project Funding for Politicians, also known as Earmarks: Politicians should not divert taxpayer dollars to their own pet projects. We need to eliminate earmarks and ensure funding decisions are based on neutral expertise, especially benefiting communities historically disregarded by politicians.

Ban Members of Congress from Trading Stocks: Government officials must serve the public interest, not their personal portfolios. I’m leading efforts to ban stock trading for top officials and require transparency in their financial dealings to root out conflicts of interest.

Washington Created Our Housing & Homelessness Crisis – They Should Fix It! California’s housing and homelessness crisis requires urgent federal action. Chronic homelessness is a symptom of a broader affordability issue. The federal government must lead, not just assist, in creating substantial housing solutions, including a major investment in affordable housing, full funding for housing assistance like Section 8 vouchers, promoting innovative financing for homeownership, and investing in workforce housing with supportive services. Only with federal leadership can we address the vast scale of this crisis.

Unrig the Economy

California is too expensive. That’s a fact. As a single mom of three school-aged kids, I know rising costs are squeezing families. Yet while essentials like rent, groceries, and health care continue to skyrocket in price, big corporations are raking in the cash, with recent profit margins hitting a 70-year high. The federal government must rethink how it invests in our communities to bring costs down permanently and hold companies accountable when they price gouge consumers.

To unrig the American economy, once and for all, we will have to make historic investments in housing, climate action, education, and health care and take on the corporate consolidation that’s leading to higher consumer prices. With millions of California families living paycheck to paycheck, the federal government must act to alleviate our state’s growing affordability crisis.

We need to crack down on corporate monopolies and encourage competition. Competition is critical to a healthy capitalist economy. Data shows that giant corporations – from major grocers to mega department store chains to health giants – are hiking prices on essential goods to boost profits. They’re getting away with it because they dominate their respective markets and don’t have to compete for consumers. We can lower consumer prices and better protect workers by making it easier for smaller businesses to compete, including by strengthening antitrust laws and enforcing those already on the books. We must also crack down on giant corporations coordinating price hikes and hold companies accountable for overcharging.

Enact Medicare for All Medicare delivers the highest quality, most cost-effective health care with the most patient choice. That’s why I support Medicare for All. I’ve run three competitive elections in a historically Republican area and never wavered in my support for Medicare for All. Many career politicians now say they support Medicare for All but were in Congress when health care policies that put profits over patients were passed – and they voted for such laws.

That’s the problem with the current system: greedy corporations – with Washington’s blessing – prioritize profit, not patient care. We see that in the outrageous prices they charge. We see that in the chronic understaffing of our hospitals. We see that in the policies that health insurance companies develop to avoid covering critical health care services. Wall Street should not be allowed to shut down health care for rural Californians simply because it isn’t “profitable enough” for them. We must stop Wall Street from putting profits before people’s health care by finally passing Medicare for All.

Treat Mental Health It isn’t enough to pass mental health protections into law if powerful insurance companies aren’t held accountable – either because of a lack of teeth or because government enforcers are asleep at the wheel. The very first bill I got signed into law was my legislation to crack down on insurance companies that don’t adequately cover mental health services.

So many of our laws have loopholes that let insurance companies deny mental health care, which is why I also worked to get another bill signed into law to close a loophole Big Insurance uses to refuse mental health services to public school teachers, firefighters, and other city and state workers. I’m fighting tooth and nail to make access to quality mental health care a reality for every Californian who needs it, and I can’t be bought to look the other way when insurance companies won’t cover services required by law.

Enact Medicare for All

Medicare delivers the highest quality, most cost-effective health care with the most patient choice. That’s why I support Medicare for All. I’ve run three competitive elections in a historically Republican area and never wavered in my support for Medicare for All. Many career politicians now say they support Medicare for All but were in Congress when health care policies that put profits over patients were passed – and they voted for such laws.

That’s the problem with the current system: greedy corporations – with Washington’s blessing – prioritize profit, not patient care. We see that in the outrageous prices they charge. We see that in the chronic understaffing of our hospitals. We see that in the policies that health insurance companies develop to avoid covering critical health care services. Wall Street should not be allowed to shut down health care for rural Californians simply because it isn’t “profitable enough” for them. We must stop Wall Street from putting profits before people’s health care by finally passing Medicare for All.

Treat Mental Health

It isn’t enough to pass mental health protections into law if powerful insurance companies aren’t held accountable – either because of a lack of teeth or because government enforcers are asleep at the wheel. The very first bill I got signed into law was my legislation to crack down on insurance companies that don’t adequately cover mental health services.

So many of our laws have loopholes that let insurance companies deny mental health care, which is why I also worked to get another bill signed into law to close a loophole Big Insurance uses to refuse mental health services to public school teachers, firefighters, and other city and state workers. I’m fighting tooth and nail to make access to quality mental health care a reality for every Californian who needs it, and I can’t be bought to look the other way when insurance companies won’t cover services required by law.

Honor Our Veterans

It isn’t enough to thank veterans for their service; we must match our gratitude with action. I’m proud to have recently helped pass legislation into law that’s making it easier for veterans to get medical care, but there’s still more work to do to provide every veteran with the health care they need. I’m working to digitize important documents, such as DD-214s, that veterans need to access the health care benefits they’ve earned. I’m also championing efforts to improve mental health care access, including streamlining crisis prevention efforts.

We need to better support veterans readjusting to civilian life. I have a bipartisan bill that would make it easier for veteran-owned small businesses to receive federal contracts. I’m also pushing the administration to take further action against predatory mortgage lenders saddling veterans with overpriced, cash-out mortgages. And I’m working to crack down on fraudulent organizations that have stolen millions from veterans by posing as charities.

Care for Older Americans

The number of Americans ages 65 and over will more than double over the next few decades. We must be proactive and consider how we will support our aging population. We’re going to need more accessible housing. We’re going to need more caregivers. We’re going to need a more robust health care infrastructure. Our senior population is growing and changing, and we must be ready. The time to start this project was decades ago, and I’m not going to leave one minute to spare in making progress on this issue.

We must strengthen Social Security, not slash it. I am strongly opposed to privatization and have actively fought to shore up the program for the millions of families who depend on it. I’m backing legislation to require the ultra-wealthy to pay their fair share into Social Security so that we can prevent upcoming budget cuts and provide more resources to those who need them most. I’m also working to close loopholes that penalize retirees who draw on the benefits they earned while working in public service.

As we push for Medicare for All in the long term, we should make changes to Medicare to help older Americans get the care they need in the short term. I support expanding the program to cover vision and hearing services, lowering the eligibility age to 50, and empowering Medicare to negotiate the prices of all prescription drugs. As a consumer protection attorney, I’m leading efforts to bolster the Senior Medicare Patrol program, which better protects older Americans and taxpayers from scammers targeting Medicare. I’m also fighting efforts to privatize Medicare. Recently, I successfully pushed the Biden Administration to scale back a Trump-era program that moved patients on Traditional Medicare to private plans, often without their knowledge or consent.

Improve Public Safety

All California communities should be safe, and all Californians should feel safe in their communities. We need to invest in proven programs to prevent crime, such as gang intervention, youth development, and mental health services, and in policies that’ll provide economic opportunity for all, lower costs of living, and end the school-to-prison pipeline. I staunchly support our first responders, and I’ve publicly urged the House Budget Committee to provide law enforcement agencies and critical organizations with the tools they need to keep people safe.

At the same time, I’m pushing to boost accountability and transparency within police departments and their budgets, recognizing the undeniable truth that unchecked, excessive policing has cost too many innocent Americans – particularly Americans of color – their lives and decimated entire communities.

I’m also fighting for my legislation to invest in appropriate alternatives to policing, which passed the House last year but was blocked in the Senate. My bipartisan bill, the Mental Health Justice Act, would make it easier for state and local governments to send trained mental health professionals instead of police when 911 is called for a mental health emergency. This legislation would save thousands of lives, as one in four fatal police encounters end the life of someone with a severe mental illness, and boost community safety as more police officers can focus on the job they’re trained to do.

End Gun Violence

I’m a single mom of three kids in public schools. I worry that my kids or their friends won’t come home, especially when I’m in D.C. and 3,000 miles away. I had similar concerns working at UC Irvine about the students I taught and myself. No parent, child, or worker should have to feel this way – about schools, places of worship, grocery stores, or any other public space. What’s especially striking about this crisis is that we know how to keep people safe – by banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, mandating universal background checks, regulating guns like any other consumer product, instituting a nationwide “red-flag” law, raising the minimum age of purchase to 21, ending the gun industry’s broad legal immunity, and investing in mental health and community violence intervention programs. And yet, Washington continues to bow to the gun lobby.

We need to shake up the status quo in DC and get the government working for real people, not greedy corporations like those in the gun industry. We have to pressure elected officials to stand with real people, not faceless corporations that profit from gun violence. In 2022, I pressed House leadership to hold separate votes on common sense gun safety measures so Americans would know where their elected representatives stand: with them or with the gun lobby. We need to maintain this sort of pressure on elected officials – and vote them out when they choose the gun lobby over our friends, neighbors, kids, and colleagues’ lives.

America’s gun violence epidemic is a symptom of a more extensive disease: corporate special interests’ outsized influence on our democracy. Like many other industries, the gun lobby uses its power in Washington to block popular policies that would keep people safe. I first ran for office six years ago to shake up the status quo in Washington and stand up to the powerful special interests that dominate DC, including the gun lobby – which is precisely what I’ve done.

Protect Reproductive Freedom and the Right to Abortion

The freedom to have an abortion, seek birth control, and have access to evidence-based sex education are critical to reproductive health. Broad restrictions on reproductive rights amount to the criminalization of health care. No American should have to travel hundreds of miles to have an abortion or fill a birth control prescription. We must pass federal legislation to protect reproductive freedom nationwide.

Be Accountable & Lead The World With Our Democratic Values

America can only be successful as a world leader if we act following our values. I’ve fought ferociously for more accountability and transparency in spending dollars abroad, whether we’re talking about the State Department, the Pentagon, or any other federal agency that has a role in advancing and protecting human rights worldwide.

I’ve also taken on corruption at the Pentagon, and I’m leading efforts to expose undue corporate influence in our foreign policy and national security apparatuses — scrutiny that has long been an afterthought in the Senate. And I’m spearheading efforts to address our country’s deadly nuclear legacy in the Marshall Islands, which forced thousands of Marshallese people to seek refuge in Southern California. Pursuing justice is essential to protecting a key international agreement and maintaining America’s economic and military influence in the Pacific.

Empower Workers

Every worker deserves to join or start a union, and we must create – and enforce – policies that deliver that opportunity. The federal government should be at the forefront of protecting workers, and I enthusiastically support modernizing our labor laws by passing the PRO Act.

But that’s not enough. We need to empower workers to form unions through card checks. We need to finally boost the minimum wage to $20 per hour nationally and $25 per hour in California, both of which should be indexed to inflation.

We must fight against corporate special interests pushing for a federal right-to-work-for-less law. We must crack down on union busting, wage theft, and retaliation. And we must stop state and local governments from unfairly subcontracting out public services. I won’t be a Senator who only votes for the PRO Act or checks a box. Instead, I’ll continue working with organized labor to bolster worker protections, demand answers from greedy CEOs, and enforce our labor laws.

Farmers & Farm Workers

I grew up on a small family farm, was an avid 4-H’er and Future Farmers of America member, and lived through the farm crisis of the 1980s and 1990s. I saw firsthand how Washington saved the banks but left families like mine behind. I’m dedicated to supporting California’s farming community, especially our farm workers and small-to-medium-sized farm owners. We need a Farm Bill that puts California farm families and our communities first.

That includes robust funding for food and nutrition programs and investing in the fruit, vegetables, and specialty crops that keep American kids healthy. California must continue leading the nation in production while ensuring farm safety nets in the face of climate threats and maintaining land conservation programs and forest health.

Our farm workers feed our nation and contribute tens of billions of dollars to our economy. We all benefit when farm workers are well-supported and empowered. I staunchly support more robust protections for workers in extreme weather conditions, and I’m pressing the Administration to guarantee water breaks to workers facing extreme heat. With scientists recently deeming recent heat waves “virtually impossible” without human-caused climate change, it’s as urgent as ever to combat the climate crisis to keep farm workers safe and protect our food supply.

We must be clear-eyed about how consolidation in the food industry is causing higher consumer prices and worse conditions for workers. I strongly support boosting competition in agricultural production and food processing space. As the only major candidate in this race who’s never taken corporate PAC and refuses federal lobbyist money, I have no problem taking on the massive corporate agribusinesses that are pushing smaller farms out of business, hiking prices, and taking advantage of their workers.

We Must Rebuild Our Immigration System

We need policies that reflect the value all immigrants bring to our communities – not our current piecemeal, broken system that serves more to dehumanize immigrants seeking to enrich our country instead of helping them succeed.

Simply put, our immigration system is a mess. Extremist Republicans have stood in the way of real reform that would create a fair and orderly pathway to citizenship for millions. And let’s be honest: Democrats in Congress have failed to deliver needed immigration reforms, even when they controlled both chambers of Congress.

Now, a generation of immigrants live in the shadows of our economy, many with bosses who exploit their workers’ statuses to steal their wages and abuse them in the workplace. We have Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients fearing their status will expire every five years. We have Temporary Protected Status (TPS) recipients who cannot safely return home yet still have no opportunity for citizenship. We have asylum seekers worldwide who are unsure about the rules and requirements for entry. The United States of America is still a beacon of hope to many across the globe, and it’s time we act like it.

And here’s the economic reality: California needs immigrants. Our state depends on agricultural workers to feed the nation. Small businesses from Chico to Temecula desperately need more service workers. We also need scientists to keep us ahead of the curb globally and more doctors and nurses to care for our aging population. We need a fair and orderly immigration system that treats people with dignity, not one that’s scotch-taped and hot-glued together because politicians in Washington are afraid to tackle challenging issues.

Combat the Climate Crisis

I serve on the House Natural Resources Committee because I understand the urgent need to protect our planet and deliver clean energy investments to California. I’ve confronted Big Oil CEOs directly about efforts to mislead the public, and I’ve fought to raise fees on polluters that hadn’t been updated in decades.

One of the most fiscally responsible things we can do is take bold, urgent action to reduce carbon emissions and protect all communities from the climate crisis. Weather and climate-related disasters intensified by climate change, including wildfires and floods, cost taxpayers $145 billion in 2021 alone. This price will only go up the longer we wait to take bold action.

I’m sick and tired of Washington politicians selling our futures to the highest bidders, including Big Oil and other polluters. I’m the only person in this race who’s never taken corporate PAC money, refuses federal lobbyist money, and won’t take money from executives from Big Oil or Big Banks. These pledges are reflected in my fights to hold polluters accountable. We need to end Big Oil’s dominance in Washington and move toward a clean energy economy that doesn’t leave anyone behind. Here’s how:

Invest in Clean Energy

Whoever dominates the renewable energy space today will have tomorrow’s most robust economy. Clean energy has the potential to unlock thousands of good-paying jobs in construction, manufacturing, research, education, and more. I support continued investments in clean energy and efforts to empower workers and communities as we push boldly toward clean energy and away from fossil fuels.

Hold Polluters Accountable

California deserves a Senator who will hold polluters accountable. I’m not afraid to stand up to Big Oil companies, as I’ve repeatedly demanded answers from their CEOs on everything from greenwashing to their greedy demands to drill on even more public land and water. I’ve also written legislation that’s been signed into law to raise fees on polluters, and I’m backing legislation that would better protect taxpayers from cleaning up messes abandoned by polluters and finally eliminate unfair tax breaks. For too long, polluters have bought and paid for their own rules, relying on elected officials for their legislative dirty work. But no more. We must end this cozy relationship and send elected officials to DC with the backbone to stand up to greedy polluters, especially those that target historically disadvantaged communities.

Prioritize Disaster Preparedness and Community Resiliency

We need to protect communities and our larger economy by taking bold action and investing in making communities more resilient. And I mean every community, especially our most vulnerable and those that have historically been left behind. In addition to providing federal resources to boost climate resiliency, we should crack down on greedy insurers who needlessly drop victims of natural disasters instead of providing coverage and work to create a stable, solvent, and competitive insurance marketplace.

We also need to streamline research on natural disasters and make that information available to all levels of government. Right now, there’s no agency responsible for creating a 360-degree, public review of disasters – including how they happened, how we could have prevented them, and how we can protect communities moving forward. I’m fighting to change that. I’m also leading efforts to better support our firefighting workforce through improved pay and benefits and to extend a critical water conservation program that helps provide reliable, clean water to Californians.

Invest in Mass Transit

Transportation is the single most significant contributor to climate change. We cannot tackle the climate crisis without changing our outdated transportation system, including by investing in more mass transit, biking networks, and walking networks. I’m glad California is slated to receive more than $10.3 billion over the next five years from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to improve public transit across the state. Still, we have to verify those investments are actually made — and that they’re made safely and efficiently. In addition to performing robust oversight of how these federal dollars are spent, I’m pushing for additional resources to continue bolstering our state’s public transit infrastructure.

Fight for Environmental Justice

I know the special interest playbook: greedy corporations too often target communities they don’t think have the resources to fight back. This abuse exists across California, from the Inland Empire, which has some of the worst air pollution in the nation, to vulnerable communities across Southern California littered with old, unsealed oil wells abandoned by fossil fuel companies. The federal government must hold polluters accountable for environmental racism. We also need to prioritize resources to support vulnerable, frontline communities.

Create a World-Class Education System – Again

We must treat education as an investment in California’s people and future workforce. Every dollar we put towards making education more affordable is – at the very least – one dollar that returns to our economy. The path to addressing inequality and allowing every child to learn and thrive starts with investing in our public schools and tackling the long-standing structural racism and discrepancies in education funding.

Invest in Public Schools

My kids attend California public schools. From kindergarten to high school, I have seen the incredible dedication of our educators and education support professionals. Yet, with decades of governmental neglect and catering to corporate special interests that want to profit off education, we’ve allowed what should be temples of learning to become overcrowded and underfunded. To build the world’s best education system again, we must be willing to rethink and innovate how we fund our schools – because what we’ve been doing isn’t working. We also need to ensure public education funds go to public schools. The longer we ignore making meaningful investments in America’s public education systems, the more kids, parents, and teachers will be left behind as our education system falls further into disarray.

We can’t have a quality public education system without well-trained, well-supported educators and education support professionals (ESPs). Right now, educators and ESPs are leaving the workforce in droves because of low pay, unsecured retirements, and because many don’t feel respected and safe in schools. We need to raise educator and ESP pay, boost security in retirement for our education workforce, and stand up to how educators and ESPs are being drawn into culture wars.

Lower the Sticker Price of Higher Education and Cancel Student Debt

As a consumer advocate and former professor, I know how the high costs of college and mounting student loan debt are holding young people – and frankly, our entire economy – back. That’s why I started the first-ever College Affordability Caucus, a group of Congress members committed to lowering the sticker price of college. Hardworking families and young people should be able to afford to seek higher education without being saddled with decades of debt. That’s why I’m championing legislation to crack down on predatory, for-profit schools, provide tuition-free public college, and cancel student loan debt for millions of overburdened borrowers.

Invest in Child Care

The United States has a long history of underdelivering for families, which hurts our economy. Our global competitors invest in policies that support families, like affordable child care and universal paid leave, because of proven economic benefits. It’s long past time for the U.S. to invest in making our economy more robust, stable, and globally competitive by prioritizing smart investments in family-friendly policies. That’s why I’m a champion for capping child care costs at 7% of income and guaranteeing paid leave to all American workers. I also believe strongly that we must raise wages for child care providers, pressing Washington to give them the pay and benefits they deserve.

Freedom for All

Freedom is at the heart of what we understand the United States of America to be – a beacon of hope to people everywhere living in oppressed societies, unable to thrive while under constant threat of economic or physical violence.

Yet the United States must lead by example by admitting its shortcomings, overhauling its systemically racist, classist, and sexist institutions, and working to protect the personal freedoms of all Americans whenever possible. We’ve too often fallen short of this ideal. That’s why, to enshrine lasting personal freedoms and bodily autonomy for all Americans, we must make massive changes to how the U.S. Senate does business, followed by generational and equitable investments in housing, education, health care, and climate resilience that will allow freedom to flourish.

We have to bolster these foundations of American democracy – reinvigorating our government for the people by the people – to protect our freedoms for the next generation. And with greedy CEOs, special interests, and corrupt politicians out of the picture, we might have a chance to succeed.

Demand Racial Justice

Millions of Californians have experienced firsthand how our nation’s laws are applied differently based on the color of their skin. We can all see how our institutions and government seem to work best for those rich or white (or both). This long, painful story of American policy dates back 400 years to America’s original sin of slavery. It’s a history we should never forget, with many problems still being solved. That’s why we can start by rewriting our laws to address – head-on – systemic injustices that leave Black, Brown, and AANHPI communities behind. We can level the playing field by pursuing equity and diversity in our public institutions, promoting minority homeownership and small business ownership, investing in educational opportunities, and standing firm against hate and discrimination.

Reform Our Broken Criminal Justice System

Corporate special interests drive extreme inequalities in our deeply flawed criminal justice system, robbing countless Americans of their lives and livelihoods. Our courts and cops are where government oversight becomes a literal issue of life and death. Too many politicians still ignore this area, unwilling to provide truthful reviews of law enforcement policies. That’s why I’m pushing to crack down on police violence by boosting transparency in police records and budgets, ending qualified immunity, reforming police training, and creating a national database of officers who have used excessive force to ban their hiring. I also strongly oppose police militarization and have repeatedly called for greater scrutiny of how the Department of Defense spends its resources, including the transfers of military equipment to state and local law enforcement agencies. How many more Black and Brown people must die before we act against police brutality?

We must also eliminate every private, for-profit prison, repeal the disastrous 1994 crime bill, and decriminalize and reschedule cannabis while reducing, if not expunging, the records of those convicted of minor cannabis-related offenses.

Respect Indigenous Rights

For decades, the issue of indigenous rights has been ignored by politicians in Washington, often for the gain of greedy industries like Big Oil. For millennia, California’s indigenous people have been stewards of the land we now call California, which is home to hundreds of Tribes. We must respect the rights and sovereignty of California’s Tribes.

I will always respect the government-to-government relationship between our nations and help Tribes achieve economic self-reliance. Tribal communities in California often face big disparities in health, housing, education, and economic opportunity – that has to end. California Tribes are on the frontlines of the opioid epidemic, which has disproportionately harmed indigenous communities. We must also elevate the epidemic of disappearances of indigenous women and girls, whose lives have been ignored and devalued by white communities for generations. We must finally treat these disappearances as the crisis it is by increasing federal funding to empower tribes to protect themselves while also drastically improving coordination between local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies.

Prioritize Economic Justice

Decade after decade, Washington has delivered an economy that empowers Wall Street, not workers. So many Californians – especially Californians of color – are working two, sometimes three jobs and can barely keep a roof over their head or food on their table. We must tackle this problem by breaking greedy corporations’ stronghold on our government. And the time to do this is now. We’re staring down monumental industrial changes – from the rise of artificial intelligence to the transition towards clean energy – that could further worsen income inequality. We can’t let the same communities who have gotten left behind decade after decade fall through the cracks because Washington was once again too focused on winning over Wall Street.

Fight for Environmental Justice

I know the special interest playbook: greedy corporations too often target communities they don’t think have the resources to fight back. This abuse exists across California, from the Inland Empire, which has some of the worst air pollution in the nation, to vulnerable communities across Southern California littered with old, unsealed oil wells abandoned by fossil fuel companies. The federal government must hold polluters accountable for environmental racism. We also need to prioritize resources to support vulnerable, frontline communities.

Center Disability Rights

To meet the needs of the disability community, more lawmakers need to listen to Americans with disabilities and their families instead of merely paying lip service to the issue. While the law is clear that people with disabilities can’t be discriminated against, unfair treatment still occurs regularly in a variety of industries. That’s why I’ve fought for inclusive policies to combat the discrimination of jurors with disabilities, ensure that people receive the health care they need free from discrimination, and fight to fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

Californians with disabilities still face obstacle after obstacle just for trying to be productive members of our society and economy. That’s why I worked with Senator Markey to introduce the Disability and Age in Jury Service Nondiscrimination Act, which would make it illegal at the federal level to prevent folks from serving their communities based on their disability. No one should be refused public service simply because of who they are, especially folks with disabilities.

It should also be a no-brainer that health insurance companies can’t deny care to folks with disabilities. Yet, that’s precisely what is happening and why I’ve written directly to the Biden Administration about cracking down on insurers that exploit loopholes in the law to deny coverage.

Time and again, we’ve seen insurers arbitrarily restrict care – particularly prostheses, wheelchairs, and other assistive devices – by claiming it’s not “medically necessary.” Insurers get away with this because there’s little oversight, so I’ve urged the Biden Administration to hold these companies accountable. That’s why I also introduced legislation to ensure people with disabilities receive full and equal consideration on the organ transplant list and aren’t passed over simply because of who they are. No one’s life should hang in the balance because of circumstances outside their control.

Defend LGBTQIA+ Rights

Everyone should be free to live their truth, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation. It’s on all of us to protect that freedom by standing up for our friends and neighbors – but our elected leaders need to bear the brunt of this responsibility. I have zero tolerance for hate and bigotry, so I helped lead efforts to end the FDA’s discriminatory ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood. I’m also fighting to pass the Equality Act, which would finally make it illegal to discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation or gender identity in employment, housing, and public accommodations. And I’m fighting to better protect LGBTQIA+ youth from bullying and harassment.