The Platform

Everyone deserves good healthcare

As someone who lives with a chronic illness, I know just how important it is to have access to good healthcare. With the Republican Party in Congress cutting billions of dollars from the Illinois’s healthcare system, it's more important than ever that we invest in public healthcare at the state level. Illinois will be one of the states most impacted by cuts to Medicaid from the Republican “big, beautiful budget bill” passed last summer. Estimates predict as much as $57 billion will be taken out of Illinois’s healthcare system due to these cuts. 

In District 24, hospitals bring in over $200 million annually from Medicaid. When those funds go away, hospitals will have to make up that lost revenue by raising prices or cutting vital services. To keep hospitals open, and to prevent costs from further skyrocketing for our residents, we need to make substantial investments in our local healthcare systems. That includes access to mental health and reproductive healthcare.

Currently Illinois uses Care Management Agencies (CMAs) to administer Medicaid throughout the state. In the past, Medicaid was administered in-house by the state. Eliminating CMAs as a middleman would save our state hundreds of millions in overhead costs, which can offset Medicaid cuts set to take effect next year. It would also allow us to take a patient-centric approach to provide the best care possible, as opposed to CMAs which focus on profits first.

• Allocating CBO’s Estimates of Federal Medicaid Spending Reductions and Enrollment Loss Across the States: House Reconciliation Bill: A study by the Kaiser Family Foundation outlining the impact of the Republican budget bill on states

• Illinois Faces Looming Health Crisis as Medicaid Cuts Threaten Coverage, Hospitals and Rural Access: WTTW article about how healthcare cuts will impact Illinois Residents

Elizabeth Powel: “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?”

Ben Franklin: “A republic, if you can keep it.”

The United States was founded on democratic principles, but recently we’ve seen those principles under attack. In Citizens United, the Supreme Court opened the door to “dark money” flooding into our elections through superPACs and other means. We’ve also seen the gutting of the Voting Rights Act earlier this year, leading to the disenfranchisement of millions across the country. Additionally, we’re seeing career politicians stay in office for decades, building huge war chests for their reelection campaigns. This makes politicians complacent and unresponsive to their constituents.

We desperately need electoral reform. Many local governments throughout the country have introduced small-dollar matching programs as a way to get “dark money” out of politics. Candidates can opt into these programs, forgoing the traditional campaign finance system to focus on raising small-dollar amounts from the community. Instead of being beholden to a special interest group, candidates can instead be focused on talking to constituents and hearing their needs. A system like this would make Illinois politicians answerable to the people and not big donors.

• Article by the Campaign Legal Center on Public Financing of Elections

• The small dollar matching program that Evanston adopted for local elections

For too long Illinois has overtaxed working and middle-class families

Illinois relies heavily on property taxes to fund government services. Property taxes are a regressive tax which takes a higher percentage of income from you if you earn less.

It's time that we ease the tax burden on the vast majority of Illinois households which are not in the top 1% and instead ask the wealthiest to pay their fair share. I would proudly support House Joint Resolution 18, introduced in 2025, which calls for raising new revenue from the ultrawealthy to help fund our communities. By closing corporate tax loopholes and taxing billionaires, we ease the tax burden on everyday people and raise the revenue we desperately need to fund our communities.

Many across our state are seeing their children and grandchildren come of age in a society that lacks the economic opportunities they had. Since 1981, the average age of homebuyers has increased from 31 years of age to over 56. This system is unsustainable, and if we want to change course, we need to make substantial improvements.

In the era of inflation and AI replacing people’s jobs, we need to invest in good-paying jobs that allow workers to support themselves and their families.

Allowing students to get 4-year degrees at local community colleges is one way to open up economic opportunities to younger generations. We are seeing a shortage of workers in crucial fields like nursing and teaching. Offering bachelor’s degrees in these fields at community colleges will allow students to work these in-demand fields while staying in their communities and not acquiring mountains of student loan debt.

It is time for our government to focus on finding solutions to these structural problems that are harming our communities.

• SB 3376: Wealth tax on billionaires

• SB 3796: Closing corporate tax loopholes

• Article on students at Triton College lobbying for 4-year degrees to be offered at community colleges

There has been an explosion of data centers all throughout Illinois over the past year.

Residents all throughout Illinois and the 24th district are worried about the massive increase in data centers being built in our communities and the coming of AI that is associated with them. These are valid concerns. Large data centers use up lots of water to cool down their equipment, consuming lots of energy and raising local utility prices. They also release greenhouse gases, and there and there have been issues of noise pollution near data centers.

We need to make sure that communities have their voices heard as to whether they want a data center built nearby, and that any data center that is built is done in an environmentally sustainable way.

Passing legislation like the POWER Act will make sure that any data centers which are built are done so in an environmentally friendly manner.

Climate change is here, and Illinois needs to prepare by building a green energy system and economy for the future. Not only will this help combat the impact of climate change, but it will also revitalize the local economies in communities across the state. It will also protect us from “oil shocks” like we’re seeing as a result of Donald Trump’s illegal war with Iran. By investing in more green energy, we can diversify our energy sources and be better equipped to handle shocks in the fossil fuel industry.

• Senate Bill 2181: Illinois Data Center Energy and Water Reporting Act

• Report by the World Resource Institute on the impact of data centers on communities

• Senate Bill 2193: Clean Air in Schools Act

• Senate Bill 4016: The POWER Act (regulating datacenters to use closed water loop systems, and build new green energy to supply them)

• Make polluters pay campaign to hold polluters responsible for the damage they’ve done to the environment

Due process is the bedrock of our legal system.

With Donald Trump back in the White House, we’ve seen an unprecedented attack on the right to due process in America. Everyone in America, whether you were born here or not, is entitled to their due process rights. What we have seen from ICE in our state this year flies in the face of our nation's foundational value of due process. Masked men in tactical gear kidnapping people off our streets while refusing to identify themselves is no basis for a just legal system. 

Almost 20% of district 24 residents are immigrants. Our friends and neighbors should not be afraid to go outside because of where they were born, the color of their skin, or whether they speak with an accent. We need to strengthen protections for our immigrant community by following in the footsteps of states like California, which banned lCE agents from wearing masks while on duty. In addition to the fear created by ICE in our community, we’re also seeing local economies taking a hit due to ICE raids. People are afraid to go out and shop because they don’t know if they’ll make it home. We need to create more “ICE-free zones” throughout our communities so that people can live their lives without fear of being harassed due to their background.

The return of Donald Trump has ushered in an era of fear for marginalized communities across the nation. We have seen an unprecedented attack on laws like the Voting Rights Act, which helps ensure everyone gets to vote and that their vote matters regardless of the color of their skin. We’ve seen attacks on the LGBTQ+ community by the Republican party, villainizing people for their identities and for simply loving who they love. In the face of these attacks on individual rights, Illinois needs to step up and affirm our commitment to protect the rights of all our residents, regardless of who they are or where their families come from.

At the same time, we’re seeing an increase of surveillance in our communities with Flock cameras and other ALPRs showing up in our towns. This is a very powerful technology that can be extremely dangerous if misused. There have been multiple reports of Flock cameras being misused in District 24. Until we are certain that there are appropriate safeguards and restrictions in place, we need a moratorium on adding new Flock cameras in our communities to protect the safety and privacy of our residents

• SB 2462: Allows the Illinois pension fund to once again invest in companies (like Ben and Jerry’s) that oppose Israel’s genocide of Palestinians through the BDS movement.

• ABC7 news report on the misuse of Flock cameras in Itasca

• Illinois Safety and Liberation Together Act: Created ICE free zones near courthouses, and provided other protections for accountability for ICE overreach

America’s economy today is broken.

Instead of creating economic opportunities for everyday people, our economy is designed to solely create more wealth for those who already have it. As a millennial, I and others my age are struggling to get by; between never-before-seen student debt and housing costs that make homeownership a pipe dream, it often feels impossible to just get a foothold to start our lives.

Many across our state are seeing their children and grandchildren come of age in a society that lacks the economic opportunities they had. Since 1981, the average age of homebuyers has increased from 31 years of age to over 56. This system is unsustainable, and if we want to change course, we need to make substantial improvements. In the era of inflation and AI replacing people’s jobs, we need to invest in good-paying jobs that workers can support themselves and their families on.

We need to incentivize people to go into careers that give back to our communities. Teaching, nursing, and many other private and public sector jobs, including good-paying union jobs, allow people to save money and invest back in their local communities and support small businesses. When those jobs are underpaid, it pushes people to go into other fields despite staffing shortages in these critical sectors.