Money Out of Politics
I believe that corporations and special interests shouldn’t be able to buy elections. Period. That’s why I’m the only candidate running for U.S. Senate in Michigan that has never taken a dime of corporate money–and never will.
Banning Corporate Money in Politics.
To get corporate and special interest money out of politics, I support legislation to overturn the disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision. In addition, I support banning outside spending through corporate 501(c)4s, SuperPACs, and 527 groups. I also support public election funding and campaign spending caps.
Ending Gerrymandering.
The Trump Administration has tried to consolidate power at every turn–including pressuring governors to further gerrymander their states. I believe that congressional districts should be drawn by a federal nonpartisan committee of experts who are appointed for defined terms on a rolling basis and who work alongside the U.S. Census Bureau, similar to the Federal Reserve Board. This would come as close as possible to eliminating the partisan gerrymandering that exists because of apportionment by partisan state governments in most states.
Supreme Court Reform.
I understand that the Supreme Court itself has become a major impediment to democracy. The Roberts court has moved to limit voting rights, civil rights, and reproductive rights while expanding Trump’s power. I support Supreme Court reform, including ending the life-time appointments, imposing limited terms, and allowing the same number of appointments for each presidential term.
Abolishing the Filibuster.
The filibuster has been used by Senators to shield one another from having to take hard votes. I believe that it is antidemocratic and should be abolished.
Making Voting Easier.
I oppose mandatory Voter ID laws like the “SAVE Act” that impose unnecessary barriers to citizens voting. Instead, I believe in making voting easier. Voters should be automatically registered to vote when they turn eighteen and reregistered automatically when they move. Election days should be holidays. And we need no-reason absentee and early in-person voting.
Civil Rights & Liberties
Nobody is above our constitution. That’s why I’ll protect the rights of all Americans, regardless of where they live, where their parents came from, how—or if—they pray, their sexual orientation, gender identity, how old they are, or how much money they make. I believe in the freedom of speech, the freedom of assembly, the freedom of and from religion, and the freedom of self-expression.
I believe that healthcare decisions should always stay between an individual and their doctor. And I believe that the government cannot and should not interfere with the right to pursue healthcare choices. Healthcare data must remain private, and state and federal government should have no right to access your data unless it’s for the purposes of providing you healthcare. And healthcare providers should be protected from undue coercion by the government to provide data or to provide, or not provide, healthcare they deem necessary for their patients.
I understand that civil rights are just as important when they protect our rights to do things that others might disagree with. That’s why I believe that the right to speak against your government’s actions and to peacefully protest them are sacrosanct. And I stand against the weaponization of the state to stamp out or intimidate peaceful protest, including the freedom to boycott.
Immigration
People don’t come here because they want to take away from America, they come here because they want to build in America – that is what America has always been about. We must replace our broken and unpredictable immigration policy with a clear, comprehensive, and fair system. That begins with Abolishing ICE. ICE has become a tool for autocracy. Its culture of aggression, impunity, and disregard for the rule of law cannot be reformed or retrained. It must be abolished. I believe in a safe, secure border and immigration enforcement–but under a new organizational structure that puts basic human dignity and deference to the rule of law first. And I believe that ICE funds should be repurposed to build out the legal infrastructure of courts to create a clear pathway to citizenship for those who are stuck in limbo in our current system.
Environment and Natural Resources
Michigan’s air, water, and land have been treated as a free dumping ground by corporations for too long. I’ve spent my career as a public health official in Detroit and Wayne County fighting back: confronting childhood lead poisoning, and standing between polluters and the communities they poison. I didn’t hesitate then, and won’t hesitate in the US Senate.
As senator, I’ll fight to hold corporate polluters fully accountable for contaminating Michigan’s land, air, and water and to empower federal agencies to stop them before they cause harm in the first place. That means codifying the Endangerment Finding into law, so no future administration can strip the EPA of its authority to regulate greenhouse gases by executive order. It means strengthening air quality standards to account for the cumulative impact of multiple pollutants on vulnerable communities. After all, a child in Detroit breathing diesel exhaust, industrial particulates, and ozone simultaneously deserves a regulatory framework that reflects that reality. It means strengthening NEPA so that communities have a meaningful voice before fossil fuel projects are permitted in their backyards, not after the damage is done. And it means making environmental justice an explicit mandate, not an afterthought, of every federal agency with authority over our air and water.
The Great Lakes are Michigan’s crown jewel and keeping them safe and clean is a solemn responsibility for the world. We account for 21% of the planet’s fresh surface water, and an irreplaceable resource for our communities, our economy, and our tribes. No corporation’s profit margin is worth risking them. I support shutting down Line 5, which is putting our Great Lakes at risk and has the potential to destroy sensitive environmental and tribal sites. In the meantime, we need to make the line safer so long as proper care is taken not to disrupt the line itself or destroy sensitive environmental or tribal sites.
The climate crisis is not a future threat. It’s here in the forms of historic storms battering Michigan farms, flooding that overwhelms Wayne County neighborhoods, and severe weather that has become the new normal across our state. Oil and gas dependence doesn’t just poison our air, it finances foreign entanglements and enriches the same corporations that have spent decades lying to us about what they knew. Michigan deserves better. That’s why I’ll fight for a pathway to 100% renewable energy. We will anchor it in massive investment in solar, wind, and battery storage, a modernized smart grid, and the energy efficiency upgrades that put money back in families’ pockets. Every step of that transition must be built on good union jobs because solving the climate crisis, rebuilding the American middle class, and providing reliable, affordable power are not competing goals–they are the same goal. I understand that we must remain open to emerging climate solutions as they develop, assessing them on safety, reliability, and community support.
Water
From the Flint water crisis to Detroit water shutoffs to PFAS contamination poisoning communities from Oscoda to Parchment, we have failed the people who depend on clean water most. I’ll fight for a federal water guarantee that every family has access to at least 50 gallons of clean water per person per day (the basic minimum needed to drink, cook, and bathe) with water bills capped at 2% of household income and ironclad protections against shutoffs for families who can’t afford to pay. I’ll push to accelerate federal infrastructure funding to get every lead pipe out of Michigan’s water systems by 2030 — seven years ahead of the current federal deadline. I’ll hold polluters fully accountable for the PFAS contamination they’ve left behind in our soil, our water, and our bodies and ensure that corporate farms taking federal dollars are held accountable for the agricultural runoff poisoning our rivers, our lakes, and our neighbors’ wells. And I’ll fight for federal funding to invest in modernizing our aging drainage and purification systems. I support shutting down Line 5, which is putting our Great Lakes at risk and has the potential to destroy sensitive environmental and tribal sites. In the meantime, we need to make the line safer so long as proper care is taken not to disrupt the line itself or destroy sensitive environmental or tribal sites.
Sensible Foreign Policy
After the devastation of World War II, our country led the international community to build organizations that would protect civilians from the disasters of war. We should lead the world to protect democracy, prosperity, and peace. We ensure security at home and abroad by standing with our democratic allies and engaging in a foreign policy that centers diplomacy, cooperation, and human rights. When we act in the interest of human rights and democracy
–as in supporting Ukraine against Russian invasion–we find ourselves on the right side of justice. It’s when we break the rules we worked so hard to set up–as in Vietnam, Iraq, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, or Palestine–that we make critical, deadly mistakes.
I oppose the illegal and unjustifiable war in Iran and demand an immediate end to the hostilities. While I oppose a nuclear-armed Iran, I understand that diplomatic means of achieving that goal are more effective and come with a far lower human cost, just as President Obama had achieved under the JCPOA.
I oppose the warlike pathway that the foreign policy establishment has pursued with China. Our competition with China is not fated toward kinetic war. Where we compete, it should be with our research, development, and economic power, building solutions to the problems of the future. While we must insist that China play by the rules when it comes to trade and intellectual property, we must also recognize that our shared futures are better when we cooperate with each other for the benefit of all of our people, rather than compete in a zero-sum arms race that makes all of us less safe.
We have maintained a policy of “strategic ambiguity” with China on the question of Taiwan for decades. The future of Taiwan should be a matter for the Taiwanese to choose through democratic means. But in recognition of the possible risks, we must continue to onshore critical national security assets, such as chip manufacturing.
I believe that in an era where our schools are crumbling and healthcare is unaffordable, we should be spending our taxpayer dollars here at home. That’s why I oppose direct blank-check funding to foreign militaries–including Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and others.
Right now, our tax dollars and American-made weapons are being used to perpetrate a genocide in Gaza, illegal settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem, and the attempted annexation of Southern Lebanon. That must end. I support immediate and comprehensive enforcement of U.S. laws that condition the provision of military aid and sales. And I support an immediate arms embargo on Israel and reject the false differentiation between “offensive” and “defensive” weapons.
As a physician and epidemiologist, I understand that global threats can quickly become local threats. And when we fail to tackle health and humanitarian threats where they present themselves abroad, they can land in our neighborhoods. Helping to diminish deprivation and disease abroad isn’t just charity, it’s important for our own safety and prosperity. That’s why I support immediate re-investment in foreign aid, including to UNRWA.
I believe in international cooperation to take on our most dire global threats, such as global pandemics and climate change. And I support America’s meaningful engagement in the World Health Organization, the Conference of Parties, and the Paris Agreement to both address the climate crisis and global health challenges.