Priorities

LOWER COSTS FOR FAMILIES​

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I grew up in a working class family in rural Wisconsin and worked three jobs to put myself through college. Working families are struggling to keep up with the cost of housing, healthcare, child care, and groceries. Our economy should work for everyone:

 

• Raise the federal minimum wage so that working a full time job can support a family 

• Take on the big corporations driving up grocery prices, crack down on rent-price fixing, and ban hidden junk fees

• Lower the cost of child care and expand the child tax credit for every working family

• Reduce the cost of housing by expanding the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, helping first-time and first-generation home buyers with down payment assistance, 

• Make new housing more affordable by rolling back the tariffs on lumber and materials that are adding thousands of dollars to the cost of building a new home

• Prevent private equity from buying single family homes and driving costs up to price people out of the communities they live in

• Bring down energy costs by investing in energy efficiency, clean energy, and a resilient, reliable grid

• Ending tax breaks for data centers and holding them accountable so they don’t drive up the cost of energy and water.

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FIX HEALTH CARE

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I've spent 23 years in health care, including a decade caring for veterans at the VA, and I still work night shifts in the ER. I've watched patients ration medication they can't afford and families lose everything because they got sick. We have the ability to take care of people. But our politicians are unwilling to stand up to the insurance and drug companies that put profits ahead of patients.

 

• Restore the Affordable Care Act subsidies and reverse the Medicaid cuts in the “Big Beautiful Bill” before more rural hospitals close and millions of Americans lose their health coverage

• Lower prescription drug costs by taking on the middlemen who drive drug prices up and raising the number of drugs Medicare can negotiate each year

• Create a public option so families have a real choice and insurers have to compete on price

• No family should have to empty their savings just to afford healthcare. I’ll cap out-of-pocket prescription drug costs, make $35 insulin available to everyone, and help seniors stay in their homes with the care they need

• Stop insurers from overruling doctors’ recommendations by requiring insurance companies to answer prior authorization requests in days, not weeks, and crack down on coverage denials 

• Stop private equity firms from buying hospitals, cutting services, and closing them.

• Fund addiction treatment and recovery, expand access to mental health care, and require insurance companies to treat mental health and addiction like any other medical condition.

• Protect nurses and health care workers from violence on the job, ensure funding for nursing education to train and keep nurses in our local communities and put bedside nurses, not hospital executives, in charge of setting staffing standards on their own units.

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END CORRUPTION IN WASHINGTON

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I don't take corporate PAC money, and I never will. We need to get money out of politics, crack down on politicians using their positions to line their own pockets, and make Congress work for the people again.

 

• Overturn Citizens United 

• Get big money out of politics by ending dark money and requiring full disclosure of who is funding our elections.

• Pass a real ban on stock trading by members of Congress, the president, and the vice president. Prohibit them and their families from owning or trading individual stocks while in office.

• Close the revolving door between Congress and lobbying firms, and crack down on conflicts of interest that have rigged Washington for special interests

• Hold Supreme Court Justices to the same ethics rules as everyone else, with stronger transparency and real accountability when there are conflicts of interest

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CREATE JOBS AND INVEST IN MANUFACTURING

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Unions built the middle class. I've been a union member at every organized facility I've ever worked, starting as a Teamster in college and still working as a union nurse today.

 

• Pass the PRO Act to protect the right to organize, and hold employers accountable when they retaliate against workers for trying to form a union

• Keep manufacturing jobs in Wisconsin by making sure federal contracts and tax incentives prioritize companies that invest and hire in our local communities

• Stop subsidizing corporations that move jobs overseas and reward the ones that keep jobs and headquarters in the U.S. and pay fair wages and benefits

• Expand apprenticeships and the skilled trades so a good career doesn't require a four-year degree or a mountain of student loan debt

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DEFEND OUR NATIONAL SECURITY

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The War Powers Act was written by a Congressman from Milwaukee, Clement Zablocki, and I began my VA career at the hospital named after him. Congress needs to uphold its Constitutional duty to decide when we declare war instead of deferring to the executive branch. We should end the costly, reckless war in Iran and bring down the costs of war and high prices that Wisconsin families are shouldering.

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PROTECT REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM

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As an ER nurse, I know that healthcare decisions belong to patients and the people who care for them. We need to protect reproductive freedom and a woman's right to reproductive health care.Politicians should not be getting in between a woman and her doctor. We also need to keep labor and delivery units open by funding rural maternity care and fixing the Medicaid reimbursement rates that push hospitals to close their OB wards.

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SUPPORT PUBLIC EDUCATION

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I worked my way through school and was the first in my family to graduate from college, with a mountain of student loan debt. We need to fully fund our public schools, restore the value of Pell Grants, and invest in technical and vocational training. We need to protect the Department of Education from efforts to dismantle it.

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PROTECT RETIREMENT SECURITY

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For decades, working people paid into Medicare and Social Security with every paycheck. After a lifetime of hard work, seniors deserve to retire with dignity. I'll block cuts to Social Security, defend workers’ pensions, and lift the cap so high earners pay in on all of their income.

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CARE FOR OUR VETERANS

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I spent over a decade caring for veterans at the VA. I'll fight to make sure our veterans get the health care, benefits, and respect they were promised. I've seen what happens when the VA is deprived of staff, and I'll push back on efforts to privatize the care our veterans earned. That means real investment in VA staffing, shorter waits, and enough mental health and specialty providers so that a veteran who needs help can get an appointment when they need it.  I’ll fight to pass the Richard Star Act, without strings attached, so veterans forced into early retirement by combat injuries get the full retirement pay and disability they earned.

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PROTECT OUR ENVIRONMENT

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Climate change is real, and it is affecting our weather, farming, and ecosystems here in Wisconsin. We need to invest in clean energy, build a more resilient grid, protect Lake Michigan and our drinking water from contamination, clean up PFAS, and make the polluters pay for it. Any corporations looking to build data centers in our communities need to pay their own way, ensure that they are not polluting our land, air, or water, be clear and upfront about how much water they will use, and commit to transparency and community buy-in. That includes paying for the new power plants and transmission lines they need, being billed as their own class of customer so those costs don't land on household electric bills, and respecting community decisions on siting and permitting. Companies cannot come in promising jobs and investment and then leave taxpayers and ratepayers holding the bill. I’ll fight to protect our public lands from corporations seeking to drill, mine, or log our pristine wild spaces.

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SUPPORT OUR RURAL COMMUNITIES

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Understanding that farming isn’t just a job but a way of life, I’ll stand up for family farms by protecting crop insurance and programs that provide support for dairy farmers in bad years. Ensure the USDA helps small producers and not just large corporations, and keep farmland in the hands of people who actually farm it. Protect SNAP and the local food programs that feed rural families and support the farmers who grow that food. Expand rural broadband; keep rural hospitals and maternity wards open and staffed with the doctors, nurses, and EMS crews our rural communities depend on.

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