Priorities

Defending Minnesotans

  • This winter, we really saw Minnesotans show up for each other, through the trauma of Operation Metro Surge. Our community stepped up, organized carpools, raised rent funds, delivered groceries, and witnessed the inhumanity of the operation. We showed what it means to be a Minnesotan, we show up for one another, even when it is hard.

    As your Senator, I am so proud to stand up and fight on your behalf in the legislature. My priorities are the people of Burnsville and Savage, and I don’t back down from a fight whether it is with the Federal government, or one of the Presidents’ billionaire pals.

    Last session, I was proud to Chair the Subcommittee on the Federal Impact on Minnesotans and Economic Stability, through that work we met with Minnesotans across the state, at food banks, at local County offices, in research universities, and more. These two years under the Trump Administration have been incredibly destabilizing, and the impacts of the ‘One Big Terrible Bill’ are going to be felt for years, if not decades to come.

  • Our rights in this country are under attack. In 2023, Minnesota Lawmakers codified our reproductive rights in statute, but conservative forces are still fighting to undo our progress. Minnesotans are proud to have the top voter turnout in the nation, and I will always fight to keep our elections easy to vote, hard to cheat, accessible for all. Individual liberties like who to love, to marry, how to raise your children, access to reliable medicine and safe food, have all been systemically under attack the past two years — and I will always stand up for our rights.

    These rights are incredibly important to me. That’s why I am proud to have served as the Chair of the Reproductive Freedom Caucus in the Senate, where we successfully passed bills to protect reproductive healthcare providers, and to protect gender affirming care. I am also a member of the Secular Government, Inclusive Democracy, and Queer Caucuses.

  • My goal is to strive for an economy that works for us all. To help get us there, I will continue to support stronger worker protections, a higher minimum wage, and consequences for employers that discriminate against, retaliate against, or take advantage of their employees. I will also continue to oppose legislation designed to strip workers of their right to bargain collectively or weaken unions’ bargaining power.

    I was proud to vote to extend bargaining rights to thousands of University of Minnesota workers in 2024, and to incentivize labor peace agreements in our burgeoning cannabis industry. I am a firm believer that strong unions, build strong communities.

  • Big money in politics has become pervasive in our country, and our government seems to have been captured by these big donors and wealthy elites. We need campaign finance reform to get dark money out of politics, and return the power to ordinary voters. I support legislation to challenge the precedent set by Citizens’ United, and believe the state has an obligation to regulate election spending. I support programs to publicly fund elections to give a bigger voice to ordinary voters, and support other voting reforms including Ranked Choice Voting.

    Lawmakers have far too often ignored the reforms voters are calling for, in part because of the influence of wealthy donors. That is not how our system is supposed to work, I believe that Minnesotans deserve an equal voice to corporations and wealthy lobbyists, lawmakers need to act to restore confidence in our institutions, and to deliver for the folks that elected us in the first place.

Safe & Thriving Communities

  • I have always been an advocate for gun reforms to protect our kids and our community. Last year, there was a horrific shooting at a school in Minneapolis, two families never got their kids home from school that day. It is unconscionable to me to sit idly by and not at least try to take action to prevent these disasters. I support an assault weapons ban, and do not believe weapons of war belong on our streets.

    I was proud to support legislation to tighten background checks, and implement extreme risk protection orders, but there is so much more lawmakers have to do. In absence of a statewide ban, there are plenty of other steps we can take like allowing cities to regulate weapons in their borders, and outlawing ‘binary-triggers’ which allow guns to shot more bullets, faster.

  • We are lucky in our community, most of the police officers in our local departments live in our neighborhoods, raise their families here, and interact and build relationships right here as our neighbors. That means we are already in relationship with those whose job it is to enforce laws and protect our communities, which is a great place to start. We can always do more to make our communities safer, to support our first responders, and to ensure transparency and accountability from those who serve our communities.

    I support increased funding for mental health services in our schools and for adults in our communities, for drug treatment so we are combating the continued devastation of the opioid epidemic with sound science and medically appropriate responses, and for investments into affordable housing so we are not criminalizing poverty but are instead addressing the root causes. These types of investments take pressure off of our police forces and help to address the root causes of these issues, which ultimately helps to increase overall community health and safety.

  • Students deserve to have access to a high-quality education, regardless of their zip code. Due to chronic underfunding of our public schools, local communities have been burdened with levies and referendums, hurting seniors and families with modest incomes. Inevitably, class sizes get bigger and educational quality suffers.

    That’s why I have consistently voted–and will continue to vote–in support of investments in early learning, full-service community schools that support students and their families both inside and outside the classroom, and recruiting and retaining the best qualified educators.

    I will also continue to work to expand skills training programs to bring more technical education into high schools to make sure every student gets a good start in life and a high-paying job.

  • I am proud to be the Chair of the Housing & Homelessness Prevention Committee in the Senate, and I have big plans to continue the work to make housing more affordable, and attainable in this state. More than 580,000 Minnesotan households pay more than 30% of their income towards their housing, which doesn’t leave enough money for necessities. Stable housing is critical to the development of children and the ability of workers to hold jobs. We have to prioritize making smart investments in housing to ensure we are able to address our current shortage of homes and meet the demands of our growing economy.

    There are bipartisan reforms we have to take to bring down the cost of housing, I am proud to lead the charge for zoning reform to allow the development of more types of housing in communities across the state. We have a critical need for more housing of all types, single family, duplex, triplex, ADUs, multi-family, and co-op housing, and we need them now. I support programs that incentivize the production of affordable and low-income housing, and support programs to maintain the existing naturally occurring affordable housing.

Protecting Our Environment

  • Our state is already feeling the effects of climate change, with higher-than-normal temperatures, more extreme storms with intense flooding, and changes to our unique ecosystems. Not only is this a detriment to the habitats we cherish so much, it also accelerates the deterioration of our infrastructure and forces us to complete early and costly repairs. We need to step up and enact bold solutions to address the climate crisis before us, so the cost of inaction doesn’t fall on the shoulders of future Minnesotans.

    I was proud to vote for Minnesota’s transition to a clean electricity system by the year 2040, but we need to act urgently now to defend our communities from the worst impacts of the climate crisis. We need to make major investments in infrastructure, climate resiliency, and lead the way in creating a thriving clean energy sector in our state.

  • Minnesotans all across the state cherish our parks, forests, rivers, lakes and natural public spaces, and we have a duty to protect and steward these places for our children and their children. Investing in green economy jobs, telework careers, and increasing tourism to our beautiful state can help build a stable economy for all Minnesotans without risking our most sacred resources. We already have work to do to mitigate the environmental harms from mega industry, many communities in Minnesota are finding forever chemicals called PFAS in their drinking water, or their lakes. We need to hold corporate giants accountable for the damage they have caused, and remediate the public goods they polluted.

  • As Minnesotans, we are stewards not just of our own communities, but of the largest area of freshwater in the world: the Great Lakes. Protecting the clean water of the Boundary Waters and the Great Lakes is absolutely vital, and we must not let short term economic gain for multi-national mining conglomerates confuse this issue.

    I’ve heard from folks across the state worried about the impact of data centers being built in their communities, local resident deserve a meaningful seat at the table when a data center is being proposed near them. Too many regular people are purposefully shut out from these conversations through non-disclosure agreements, and public affairs specialists. We deserve to have our questions answered about noise, water use, electricity use, and to decide if the trade off is worth it. I support legislation to end tax breaks for data centers, and the incredibly profitable companies that operate them.

An Affordable Minnesota

  • Minnesota’s economy is strengthened when Minnesotans can afford essential goods and services like childcare, healthcare, and prescription drugs.

    Childcare is a critical infrastructure need for our community and economy and we need to treat it as such. I support broad investments to create new childcare seats, to reduce out of pocket costs for families, and support for the workers who take care of our kids.

    To make healthcare more affordable, I support legislation to immediately establish a MinnesotaCare buy-in program, allowing all Minnesotans and small businesses to buy into MinnesotaCare, a bipartisan program that has provided high-quality, low-cost insurance to thousands of working Minnesotans for more than 25 years. This measure would provide access to health care for thousands additional Minnesotans and allow us to build a sustainable model to transition to a MinnesotaCare for All health care system in which every Minnesotan has access to health insurance, regardless of zip code and income level.

  • I have lead the charge in the Senate to ban predatory pricing that uses algorithms and consumer surveillance, to squeeze the most money out of a customer as possible, to change prices the minute, or by the consumer. These reforms will protect consumers, and level the playing field for local small businesses who don’t have the access to these expensive and predatory tools.

    I’ve passed legislation to extend new protections to renters, to prohibit illegal price-gouging during disasters and emergencies and to end arbitrary junk fees so that the ‘price you see, is the price you pay.’ I have also introduced legislation to breakup monopolies, working to end health insurance prior authorization rejections, and to prohibit landlords from coordinating and price-fixing their rents with other large landlords.

  • We must put a stop to those who are exploiting our economy to line their own pockets. Our lives are undeniably becoming more and more expensive, thanks in part to corporate greed, and maximizing returns for shareholders at all costs. Our economy needs new guardrails to help everyday consumers, and to protect our personal information and private data.

    I support legislation to get private equity out of healthcare and housing, legislation to end prior authorization denials, and increase healthcare pricing transparency. Last session I was proud to support legislation to make it illegal to ‘nudify’ someone else using AI technology, to prohibit habit-forming predictive markets like Kalshi and Polymarket, and social media protections for minors.