Money in Your Pocket
In the state that built the American Dream, it shouldn’t be this hard to get by. I believe in an economy built by and for working people. I’ll fight against corporate tax breaks and the capture of our economy by billionaires and wanna-be oligarchs. I believe that every worker deserves the right to join a union and to earn a fair wage. And I believe that one good job should pay enough to raise a family. I’ll fight for an economy where anyone can start and grow a business to build wealth for themselves, their family, their co-workers, and their communities. And I believe that every American deserves guaranteed healthcare regardless of what they do for work. I want to abolish medical debt–just like we did for more than 300,000 Michiganders in Wayne County.
Jobs and Trade
Trade deals, like NAFTA, have been a disaster for American manufacturing and have rotted out our towns and destroyed communities. I believe in bringing dignified, well-paying jobs to Michigan. That means investing in the research, development, and growth of the technologies of the future while using tools like tariffs in a steady, thoughtful, and targeted way to protect them as they grow. I believe that unions must have a significant voice at the tables where decisions about the future of our economy are being made.
I believe in holding corporations accountable. And I stand for a muscular Federal Trade Commission that enforces anti-monopoly laws so the corporations can’t price-gouge us. We need laws that would stop Wall Street speculators from wrecking good companies and killing good jobs, force publicly-traded corporations to be accountable to their workers, and protect workers on the job.
Research and development are among America’s most important assets. Rather than gut critical research agencies like the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health and pull back from funding research laboratories in universities across America, I believe that our future requires us to invest more and faster. And he believes that the taxpayers who fund this research should earn back the returns on their investment.
My American story began because my father wanted to come to America to build cars. Nobody builds better than we do. But dumb trade agreements negotiated without unions at the table have siphoned away too many manufacturing jobs. Trump’s incoherent, self-serving version of tariffs have only made the problem worse. I support targeted, smart tariffs that would help protect Michigan manufacturing and incubate the industries of the future with unions at the forefront. These tariffs would focus on growth industries, rely on clearly communicated benchmarks with trading partners, and sunset as American manufacturers established themselves.
Taxing Billionaire Wealth.
I believe in right-sizing our tax code to take on the outsized power of excess wealth in our economy and democracy. The ultrawealthy should no longer be able to hide behind loopholes that leave them paying lower tax rates than the rest of us. Toward that end, I support taxing capital gains over $1 million at the same rate as ordinary income and closing the stepped-up basis loophole. I also support taxing inheritance greater than $1 million like ordinary income and imposing a progressive tax on wealth held by trusts. I support raising the marginal tax rate on earnings over $1 million and a billionaire tax on wealth over $1 billion. In addition, I support a cost of living exemption on federal taxes up to $50,000. I’ll also fight to close the Social Security payroll tax cap to make sure the rich pay their fair share so that Social Security stays solvent well into the future.
Artificial Intelligence
Government decisions around world-changing technology like AI should not be left to unaccountable corporations. Rather than replace us, AI should be a tool to enhance our lives. Further, the speed and lack of transparency with which these technologies are being developed opens the door to serious risks that powerful AI may fall into the wrong hands or escape human control altogether. That’s why I support legislation to create guardrails around when, how, and for what purposes AI is deployed. And I oppose efforts to pre-empt state action without federal legislation in place.
To address the risk of massive automation of our jobs, I support exploring income protection programs such as wage insurance and basic income, worker investment through unions, adjusting our tax system to stop penalizing human employment and rewarding automation, and investment in small business revolving loan funds.
And to address the security risks, I believe we must develop clear “rules of the road” for AI development that governs which hands this technology falls into and requires us to better test and understand the models being developed. This includes clear safety testing standards for frontier models; liability and incident reporting standards; compute controls, including “know your customer” requirements for compute providers; and the creation of an independent technical agency with real enforcement power, like to the Food & Drug Administration, for AI.
Blockchain has the potential to disrupt the overwhelming power of big banks in our financial lives. But these technologies also can open doors to misuse and abuse, such as pump-and-dump schemes, shitcoins, and Donald Trump’s own pay-to-play corruption scheme. That’s why I support legislation that both clarifies the governance and legitimate use-cases of blockchain for financial services, and more importantly, protects consumers and the public from those who would use financial technology to launder funds, defraud the public, or engage in corruption.
Data Centers
Data centers are among the most direct impacts of new technologies in the lives of everyday Michiganders. I support comprehensive federal zoning guidelines and legislation that protect communities from their unintended consequences. Toward that end, I created a leading edge policy proposal for “Terms of Engagement” for data centers that I intend to pass as federal law in the U.S. Senate.
Housing and Homelessness
Homelessness is an American crisis–and it’s a housing issue. Too many Americans are priced out of the most basic necessity of shelter. And working people can’t afford housing in the communities in which they work. I aim to solve it.
We need a building boom. And to create that we need to massively invest in building new housing in communities across the country, and to streamline local regulations that are making it way too hard to build anything in America. I’ll stand up to the corporate profiteers who are on the wrong side of affordable housing. I want to ban large corporations that speculate on our housing stock from owning homes at all. And I will support federal legislation to ban algorithmic rental price-fixing software that allows corporate landlords to collude to raise rent. I want to require Big Tech companies like AirBnB and VRBO to pay special housing dislocation fees for the housing stock they occupy in local communities. And I will stand up to corporate landlords against unfair evictions that are forcing too many Americans onto the streets. Toward that end, I believe we need a federal renter bill of rights that protects renters from exploitation and clarifies the obligations for landlords across the country.
Education
Education is the foundation of our future. I propose tying any percentage increase in our national education funding to any equivalent increase in the national defense budget. As a proud graduate of public schools and a public university, I understand the critical role of funding education from childcare through K-12 and beyond to prepare our young people for their futures.
I believe in the right to literacy. That starts with universal childcare, universal pre-K, and public K-12 education that is comprehensive, empowering, and tailored to kids’ unique needs. I protected children in Detroit from lead in their schools, and I believe that we need a massive investment in school infrastructure–the buildings and community spaces that are so critical to the safety and security of children in the place we leave them, most of the day, most of the year. Rather than gutting the Department of Education, I will support public schools, protect the civil rights of children, respect and invest in our educators and staff, and fight to guarantee high-quality public education for all. Teachers deserve to be paid more. So I support raising the minimum salary for teachers to at least $60,000/year. I also support more investment in paraprofessionals, including nurses, psychologists, social workers, and behavioral health specialists, so that all students have access to wraparound services that are critical to ensuring a healthy and productive learning environment.
The federal government has failed to care for students with disabilities and special needs and I believe we should fulfill our obligation to finally fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Further, we need to think beyond the outdated funding models that tie school funding to property taxes, which deprive working-class communities and schools of sufficient resources. Public school should be truly public–and I oppose efforts to privatize public education through vouchers and other programs intended to move public money into private pockets.
We need to think past traditional models of education. I’ll work alongside our unions to fund and expand vocational and apprenticeship training opportunities so that every American has a pathway to expand their skills. In addition, I believe in expanding funding for America’s HBCUs, community colleges, and trade schools, recognizing that these have been the engine of social mobility for generations of young people locked out of other forms of higher education.
America’s colleges and universities are among its most critical research institutions. They deserve more funding, not less. That funding should focus on high-risk, high-impact science that has the potential to change the world. Sadly, too few have access to our colleges and universities. That’s why I believe that every student deserves a debt-free and tuition-free pathway toward the skills they need to thrive, be that a two-year apprenticeship or a four-year college education and beyond. To cap the runaway inflation in higher education, I believe we must cap the administrative overhead costs for institutions receiving federal funding. We need more research and teaching rather than rec centers and flavors of frozen yogurt. I will also champion non-traditional tenure pathways for educators whose work advances the teaching mission of higher education institutions.
Farming
Michigan is the cherry capital of America and one of the most agriculturally diverse states in the nation. For too long, Washington has ignored us. Federal farm subsidies funnel money to massive corn and soy operations while family farmers go broke and the crops that define Michigan farming struggle. I’ll fight to redirect federal farm subsidies away from corporate agribusiness and toward the family farmers who need them. I aim to cap individual subsidy payments at $250,000 per year and reinvest those dollars into specialty crops, diversified agriculture, and regenerative farming that builds long-term food security and rural prosperity. I’ll push for targeted, negotiated trade protections for Michigan’s specialty crops. Unlike the reckless blanket tariffs that raise farmers’ costs and invite retaliation, I’ll focus duties squarely at the foreign producers who dump below-cost goods into our markets and undercut Michigan farmers who play by the rules. I’ll reform the H-2A guest worker program through the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, creating real pathways to legal status for the immigrant farmworkers who harvest our food while streamlining a visa system that currently leaves family farms in limbo every season. And I’ll champion a federal right-to-repair law because a family farmer in Leelanau County shouldn’t have to wait two weeks and pay dealer prices just to fix the tractor sitting in their field at harvest time.