In 2023, I dedicated myself to protecting women’s healthcare by supporting Ohio’s Reproductive Freedom Amendment. Like thousands of Ohioans, I did the work to collect signatures to get this amendment on the ballot and then campaigned door-to-door and at the polls to get out the vote. And like millions of Ohioans and a majority across this district, I proudly voted YES for the Reproductive Freedom Amendment in November.

But our work is not done. Republicans in Ohio, in Congress, and on the Supreme Court continue to threaten women’s fundamental right to make decisions about their own bodies. When I am in Congress I will support national legislation and a national constitutional amendment modeled on Ohio’s Reproductive Freedom Amendment.

I believe in the free market. And labor negotiations are a key part of the free market, involving voluntary exchanges between employers and employees based on supply and demand dynamics. Union-led collective bargaining is a crucial component of these negotiations, as it levels the playing field between the employer and employees, ensuring that employment terms balance the interests of both parties within market conditions. By empowering labor, we can move outsized corporate profits to the middle class, boosting wages and the standard of living for all Americans.

Historically, unions were the backbone of the middle class. But they have been declining in effectiveness for decades because they have been operating under woefully outdated labor laws. That is why I support the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. The PRO Act will protect the freedom to unionize in all fifty states, reform and strengthen labor laws for a new economy, and empower workers to collectively bargain for better pay, benefits, and working conditions. Passing the PRO Act must be a priority.

Congress controls the purse. Yet every year, sometimes multiple times per year, we find Congressmen like Max Miller putting us on the brink of another government shutdown. And then they end up passing lobbyist-prepared, unreviewed, massive spending bills in the middle of the night. Instead of actually taking the care to prioritize, manage, and oversee our tax dollars, Congress simply writes another blank check to appease donors and keep their power.

It is time for Congress to take its spending power seriously. This means getting off social media, rejecting the culture wars that divide us, and actually doing the work to pass sensible budgets. When I am in Congress, I will advocate for Zero Based Budgeting. Zero-based budgeting (ZBB) is a budgeting method where every expense must be justified for each new period, starting from a "zero base" rather than adjusting previous budgets. This process involves detailed analysis and cost-benefit evaluations to allocate resources more efficiently and ensure that all expenditures align with organizational goals.

For decades, multiple Supreme Court cases recognized a general right to privacy that prohibits the government from interfering in our personal lives by, for example, banning contraceptives. Indeed, the Bill of Rights strictly limits when and how the government can search and seize our property or place us under arrest. For decades, we have enjoyed this understanding of the boundary between our individual lives and the government. Unfortunately, that boundary is now under attack not just by the government, but by corporations. 

After the Dobbs decision overturned the right to abortion, Republican lawmakers have balked at protecting many of the privacy rights we once took for granted - abortion, contraception, IVF, same-sex marriage, etc. We can no longer count on politicians or a corrupt Supreme Court to protect these basic expectations about how we run our own lives.

Simultaneously, the capabilities of big tech have exploded. Our phones, cars, computers, Siris, Alexas, TVs, and any other digital devices we can dream up know almost everything about us. From GPS locations to the products we search, from listening to our conversations and even monitoring our cameras, big tech knows more about us than we do!

We must take back our rights, both from the government and from corporations. Our data should be our data, our bodies should be our bodies, and our decisions should be ours alone. It is past time that we enshrine individual privacy into the constitution, ensuring freedom from government and corporate intrusion into our private lives.

One of the most corrosive realities in our republic is the fact that politicians choose their voters, instead of voters choosing their politicians. How? Through a process called redistricting, which enables “representatives” of the party in power to cherry-pick the areas they want to “represent” (this is also known as gerrymandering). This ultimately results in safe Republican or safe Democratic districts, where the only real election is in the party primaries. This means that each party is focused solely on winning over primary voters - the most active part of their own party’s base. There is no incentive to compromise, moderate, or work with fellow representatives to actually come up with good solutions for Americans. This must end.

Fortunately, voters in some states, including Ohio, are already fighting back with their own redistricting reforms. These reforms are designed to take the redistricting power away from politicians and put it in the hands of independent commissions with strict rules about how they can draw districts. I strongly support and urge you to vote YES for Ohio’s own reform this November - a citizen-proposed amendment known as the Citizens Not Politicians amendment. 

However, if we are to Make Congress Work Again, then these reforms must occur nationally, not just in a few states. That is why I support the For the People Act and the John R. Lewis Votings Rights Advancement Act, which contain provisions that will ensure fair redistricting. Together, these bills would transfer redistricting power from politicians to independent commissions, establish standardized criteria to make maps fairer, and ban partisan and racially-biased gerrymandering in every state. When passed, these reforms will put voters back in the driver’s seat of our democracy and incentivize politicians to actually act in the best interests of their districts, not their parties.

Democracy cannot succeed if we don’t vote. Those in power would love nothing more than for disgruntled citizens to sit at home while their diehard supporters head to the polls. So creating roadblocks to voting empowers them. I want to empower you. We must enact national voting reforms that ensure all Americans have the freedom and ability to vote. That is why I support the For the People Act, which will make voting fairer, easier, and more inclusive. Some of the voting reforms included in the Act are:

• Automatic voter registration unless voters opt out
• Voter registration up to and on Election Day
• Early voting locations in underserved areas
• At least two weeks, including weekends, of early in-person voting
• Election day a national holiday