Raise the Minimum Wage

No one working full time should struggle to get by. As your Representative, I will sponsor legislation raising the federal minimum wage to at least $20 an hour tied to inflation and eliminating the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers.

Every job should pay a living wage. The minimum wage in Utah is $7.25 per hour, which matches the federal minimum wage. The federal minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 since 2009. Someone working 40 hours a week making minimum wage brings home just over $15,000 a year. The 2025 poverty line in the United States is $15,600. In other words, you can work a full-time job in America and still live in poverty. This is simply unacceptable. Not to mention the federal tipped minimum wage has been at $2.13 since 1991. 1991! The last time the tipped minimum wage was increased was when the iPhone and internet didn’t exist. Restaurant owners pass the cost of their employees onto customers rather than pay their employees a livable wage.

Build More Housing

The rent (and mortgage) is too damn high. The average sale price for a house in 2009 was approximately $200,000. The average sale price for a house in 2026 is over $415,000. So from the beginning of mankind to 2009, home prices rose from $0 to $200,000. In the 17 years since then, home prices have doubled. We need to build more housing to bring rents down and help more people buy a home. As your Representative, I will sponsor legislation to provide increase federal funding for new housing construction, ban corporate ownership of residential homes or apartments, increase funding for federal homeless assistance programs, create a renter’s refundable tax credit, and convert the home mortgage interest deduction into a refundable tax credit benefiting all homeowners equally and not simply the wealthiest.

Universal Child Care and Paid Parental Leave

Raising children should not come with impossible financial and professional tradeoffs. Bit of an obvious statement here, but come along with me. If we all collectively stopped having kids, our species would cease to exist in a few decades. And yet, our federal government provides almost no real support to new parents or children.

Child care should be treated as a public good, rather than a private family burden. As your Representative, I will sponsor legislation guaranteeing that every family has access to high-quality, free child care.

All new parents should be able to spend time with their children without risking their livelihoods. Too many Americans are forced to rely on employer generosity or take unpaid leave during one of the most important moments of their lives. As your Representative, I will sponsor legislation guaranteeing 12 weeks of paid parental leave for all new parents, bringing the United States in line with other developed nations.

Unions: The Folks Who Brought You the Weekend

Labor unions are one of the strongest tools working people have to improve their lives. By bargaining together, workers can secure higher wages, better benefits, and safer workplaces—gains that are difficult to achieve alone. In our rapidly changing economy, unions are crucial for ensuring workers have a seat at the table to address the impact of technological changes on workers. Unions provide a vital, democratic voice for employees, offering protection against arbitrary dismissal and promote transparent and fair management practices. As your Representative, I will co-sponsor the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which will strengthen unions and labor protections by making it easier for workers to organize, facilitating first contract negotiations, and penalizing employers for violations. As your Representative, I will also sponsor legislation to repeal the Taft-Hartley Act, which has weakened labor unions since its passage in 1947 by prohibiting strikes, boycotts, and picketing, and enabling so-called “right-to-work” laws that undermine workers’ bargaining power.

Worker Representation on Corporate Boards

Workers deserve a voice in the companies they build. As your Representative, I will sponsor legislation requiring any publicly traded U.S. corporation with more than $1 billion in annual revenue to have its employees elect no less than 40% of the company’s board members. Giving workers a meaningful seat at the table will help ensure companies invest more in wages and long-term growth for the company and the workers rather than corporate stock buybacks and dividends for shareholders.

Simplify Tax Returns

Tax Day is a national nightmare for most Americans. The average American taxpayer spends approximately 13 hours and $290 in out-of-pocket costs to prepare and file their taxes. The total time burden for all taxpayers for 2024 was approximately 7 billion hours, equivalent to $536 billion in lost productivity and/or a lot more time relaxing on a sunny April weekend.

Filing a tax return can be so much easier for the vast majority of taxpayers. The IRS already has most of the information needed for most individual tax returns, but every year taxpayers spend enormous sums of time and money collecting and re-providing this information to the IRS. The tax agencies of more than 45 countries provide their taxpayers with partially pre-populated tax returns. As your Representative, I will sponsor legislation providing for the IRS to do the same for U.S. taxpayers, which will dramatically reduce the time and money spent filing tax returns for the vast majority of U.S. taxpayers.

Tax the Rich

We need an overhaul of the tax code. Taxes are meant to provide social support for everyone but time and again we see tax cuts for the rich at the expense of public goods for everyone else. As your Representative, I will sponsor legislation that will make our tax laws fair by closing loopholes, raising taxes on millionaires and billionaires (the current highest rate kicks in at $640,600 for an individual and never increases again), and lowering taxes for everyone else. It is a policy failure that someone worth billions of dollars could pay a lower effective tax rate than their secretary. It is literally impossible for anyone to become a billionaire by working a regular, full-time job. If someone worked a full-time job earning $64,000 a year for only 15,624 years (assuming they spent no money and paid no taxes), they would still not be a billionaire. I've been a practicing tax attorney for over a decade, and I've seen firsthand how our tax laws favor the rich. As your Representative, I will make our tax laws work for the 99% and not just the 1%. If you legislate to make the masses prosperous their prosperity will find its way up through every class which rests upon them.

Consumer Protections

Everyone deserves an economy that works for them, not one rigged by hidden fees, corporate price-gouging, and monopolies. This campaign is committed to protecting consumers, lowering everyday costs, and making sure working families can get ahead.

Banks shouldn’t profit from people living paycheck to paycheck. As your Representative, I will sponsor legislation to ban overdraft fees and crack down on junk banking charges.

I will also fight to rein in abusive credit card practices. Consumers deserve transparency, fairness, and control over their money, not lifelong debt traps. As your Representative, I will sponsor legislation to cap credit card interest rates, prohibit unfair rate hikes, and protect consumers from predatory lending practices.

In today’s world, internet access is essential. As your Representative, I will sponsor legislation providing federal funding for a public option for broadband to ensure affordable, high-speed internet for every household without hidden fees, data caps, or corporate gatekeeping.

Postal Banking

Nearly a third of U.S. households do not have access to affordable financial services. The United States Postal Service is perfectly positioned to provide basic, affordable, consumer-driven financial services. As your Representative, I will co-sponsor the Postal Banking Act, which will establish nonprofit banking services at USPS locations, offering low-cost checking and savings accounts, ATMs, mobile banking, and low-interest rate loans.

Affordable and Accessible Education

As your Representative, I will co-sponsor the College for All Act, which will make public colleges, universities, and trade schools tuition-free for all students.

Medicare for All

Every American should have guaranteed access to healthcare that is affordable, universal, and easy to use. The fastest path forward is to lower the age of Medicare eligibility to zero. As your Representative, I will sponsor legislation to do exactly that and co-sponsor the Medicare for All Act, which will guarantee comprehensive, free-at-the-point-of-service coverage for all U.S. residents, eliminating most private insurance, deductibles, and copays.

The most common counterargument is the cost. But this argument is wrong. In fact, a single-payer, universal healthcare system is actually the smart economic choice. The United States already spends more per person on healthcare than any other developed nation, yet achieves worse outcomes. We have lower life expectancy, higher maternal mortality, and higher infant mortality than any country that guarantees healthcare. Medicare for All cuts costs by removing unnecessary middlemen and allowing doctors and patients, not private insurance companies, to make healthcare decisions.

Medicare and Medicaid operate with administrative costs of about 2–3%, compared to 20–25% for private insurers. Under Medicare for All, most families and employers would pay less by replacing today’s private insurance premiums (approximately $27,000 per family per year) with a more efficient public system.

Medicare for All will strengthen the economy by ending job-locked healthcare. Workers will be free to change jobs, start businesses, or pursue new opportunities without risking their health coverage. Employers, especially small businesses, will no longer shoulder the enormous cost of providing private insurance (currently nearly $700 billion nationwide) meaning Medicare for All would be one of the largest business tax cuts in U.S. history.

All-Inclusive Healthcare

This is a quick one. As your Representative, once we enact Medicare for All, I will sponsor legislation to expand Medicare to include full dental, vision, and hearing coverage. Teeth, eyes, and ears aren't luxury items. Comprehensive healthcare should cover the whole body.

Cap Prescription Drug Costs

U.S. prescription drug spending is the highest in the world, averaging over $1,500 per person annually, nearly three times the average of other high-income countries. Congress has refused to stand up to the pharmaceutical industry and lower the outrageously high cost of prescription drugs. As your Representative, I will sponsor legislation capping the cost of prescription drugs at the lower of the amount that the Department of Veterans Affairs or the General Services Administration pays for the drug.

Fully Fund and Eliminate Taxes on Social Security

Millions of Americans are counting on Social Security to be able to retire someday. Americans have heard for years that we are going to run out of cash to fund Social Security and yet our elected officials have done nothing. 

There is one incredibly easy fix here: an employee earning $184,500 in 2026 will pay $11,439 in Social Security taxes. Meanwhile, a CEO taking home $184,500,000 in 2026 will pay…$11,439 in Social Security taxes. Well that doesn’t seem right, does it? This is because of a cap on Social Security taxes that has shifted the burden of funding Social Security from the wealthy to middle class families. As your Representative, I will sponsor legislation to remove the cap on Social Security taxes. Removing the cap on Social Security taxes will secure the future of Social Security for all by requiring the wealthy to pay their fair share. 

In addition, I will sponsor legislation exempting all Social Security earnings from taxation. This would amount to the largest tax break in history for America’s seniors and would allow seniors to save more of their money. The taxation of Social Security began in 1984 (thank you, Ronald Reagan) and it is past time we undo that mistake.

Protect Our Troops and Support Our Veterans

I did not have the honor of serving in the U.S. military, but I deeply respect those who did. We owe an incalculable debt to those who have put their lives on the line for our country, and it is unacceptable that so many veterans struggle to get the care and support they deserve.

No veteran should have to fight their own government for healthcare, housing, or benefits. As your Representative, I will sponsor legislation to fully fund the VA, expand mental health services, expedite review of service-connected claims, increase housing assistance and debt relief, end veteran homelessness, and create well-paying federal job opportunities for veterans. I will also work to limit presidential authority of military deployment without Congressional approval and oversight so fewer Americans are sent into harm’s way without accountability.

Impeach Donald Trump

The moderate position is that Donald Trump should be impeached, convicted, and removed from office. Heck, I firmly believe that if we offered Donald Trump immunity from prosecution and ~$5 billion dollars to just go away and never come back he’d probably take us up on it.

As your Representative, I will pass a resolution to impeach Donald Trump for his impressively long list of high crimes and misdemeanors, which will need regular updates until I'm inaugurated.

Ban Congressional Stock Trading

Members of Congress write laws that directly affect the lives of Americans, the economy, and financial markets. They should never use insider information for personal profit, and public service should not be a path to self-enrichment. Voters deserve confidence that lawmakers are acting in the public interest, and not their own financial portfolios. Members of Congress must be legally prohibited from trading individual stocks. Any politician who disagrees is a liar, a crook, or both.

As your Representative, I will co-sponsor the Ban Congressional Stock Trading Act, which prohibits members of Congress from trading individual stocks. This will ensure accountability, restore trust, and keep lawmakers focused on the people they serve.

Congressional Term Limits

As your Representative, I will sponsor legislation providing Congressional term limits, which will prohibit any member of Congress from serving for more than 12 years (whether consecutively or not). Does any group of people inspire less excitement than our current members of Congress? The median age of current members of the House of Representatives is just shy of 58 years. It’s even worse in the Senate with a median age of just under 65 years old and the oldest person ever inaugurated President is Donald Trump, at 78 years and 7 months. A few of our geriatric pols were actually born before sliced bread became a thing. I’m looking at you, Chuck Grassley. Americans are in desperate need of elected officials who didn’t graduate from college before the end of the Cold War. Too many of our incumbents are incredibly old, incompetent, corrupt, ideologically extreme, and out of touch, and yet the vast majority of incumbents are regularly reelected given the advantages of incumbency. Term limits will bring new insight into office and remove career politicians, lessen opportunities for long-term entrenchment and influence from lobbyists, and create more competitive and representative elections.

Get Big Money Out of Politics

Our democracy shouldn’t be bought and paid for by the wealthy and powerful. It’s time to get big money out of politics. With money comes time, access, and the corruption of representative democracy. As your Representative, I will sponsor legislation to overturn Citizens United (an incorrectly decided 2010 Supreme Court decision that reversed long-standing campaign finance laws and enabled corporations and outside groups to spend unlimited money on elections) and strip the judicial branch (including the U.S. Supreme Court) of jurisdiction to hear cases involving said legislation, reinstitute pre-2010 federal campaign finance laws, establish public financing as the sole way to finance federal elections, and bring an end to the era of big money in politics. Representatives should answer to their constituents, not those with the biggest pockets.

Defend and Expand Voting Rights

Voting is as American as it gets, and it is anti-American for anyone to attempt to restrict it. Yet for millions of people, voting remains far more difficult than it should be. Long lines and limited access are not signs of a healthy democracy, they are warning signs.

I support expanding access to the ballot by increasing early in-person voting and providing secure, no-excuse mail-in voting for all federal elections. Utah has successfully led the nation on universal vote-by-mail for over a decade, proving that expanded access can be both secure and effective. In fact, Utah is the only Republican-led state to mail all active voters ballots each election. But now, at the beck and call of Trump, Utah Republicans are restricting access to the ballot by cutting back on mail-in voting.

As your Representative, I will sponsor a modernized Voting Rights Act that guarantees at least 15 days of early in-person voting, makes Election Day a national holiday, establishes universal vote-by-mail for federal elections, automatically registers any U.S. citizen not already registered to vote when they interact with the federal government, provides every U.S. citizen with a free national voter ID that is accepted nationwide and backed up by digital record, and reinstates the barriers to voter suppression provided for in the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that have been gutted in recent years.

Democracy works best when participation is encouraged, not restricted.

End the Gerrymandering Wars

Politicians should not pick their voters. This should not be a controversial statement and yet we see incumbents everywhere, particularly here in Utah, spending millions in taxpayer funds to carve up their states down to the exact streets to protect themselves from competitive elections. As your Representative, I will co-sponsor the Fair Representation Act, which will provide for multi-member districts for congressional elections, ranked choice voting in these elections, and new requirements for congressional redistricting. This legislation will effectively solve the problems of partisan gerrymandering and uncompetitive elections for the U.S. House. The Fair Representation Act will provide for proportional representation for all Americans across the political spectrum, regardless of their zip code. This means greater inclusion for urban Republicans, rural Democrats, independent and third-party voters, and other voters across the political spectrum.

Force the Release of the Unredacted Epstein Files

Let us say, hypothetically, that I was President of the United States, and I could prove that I wasn’t close personal friends with an infamous pedophile by releasing documents. If I refused to release said documents, the obvious conclusion to draw would be that I was, in fact, a close personal friend of said infamous pedophile. 

Donald Trump, a close personal friend of the late Jeffrey Epstein, is obviously implicated in some truly terrible stuff in the Epstein files. Yet, Congress continues to allow Donald Trump to block the release of these files and shield himself from being (further) exposed for the abuser that he is.

As a candidate to be your Representative in Congress, I add my voice to the growing chorus demanding the total release of the unredacted Epstein files. And, if Donald Trump, a close personal friend of the late Jeffrey Epstein, has somehow managed to stonewall the release of the Epstein files by the time I am your Representative, I will stop at nothing to pry those unredacted files out of his grubby, gross little hands.

Government Accountability

Working for the American people should not be the cushy job it has become. If voters are working, members of Congress should be too. As your Representative, I will sponsor legislation barring any member of Congress from receiving a paycheck during and for any period of time the federal government is shut down. I will also sponsor legislation requiring a full vote on every bill prior to any member of Congress taking their cherished vacation time. My door, phone lines, and email inbox will always be open. I will respond to every constituent call and email personally. If I can’t talk to my constituents (i.e., my employers) without charging them $1,000 a plate at a fancy dinner, then it's time for me to find a new job.

Restore and Expand Reproductive Rights

Republicans want to make the government just small enough to fit inside your bedroom. There's nothing conservative about government control over the reproductive decisions of Americans. The decision to start a family should be between a woman and her medical provider. Access to contraception, reasonably priced IVF and other fertility treatments and services, and abortion rights must be protected by federal legislation.

As your Representative, I will sponsor legislation reinstating the protections previously guaranteed by Roe v. Wade, stripping the judicial branch (including the U.S. Supreme Court) of jurisdiction to hear cases involving said legislation, repealing the Hyde Amendment (which bars the use federal funds from covering abortion services), and establishing a federal guarantee to contraception. I will also sponsor legislation funding free contraception, comprehensive sex education, and family-planning services because real freedom includes the ability to make informed choices about your own body.

Extend Anti-Discrimination Laws to the LGBTQ+ Community

Our LGBTQ+ friends and neighbors deserve protection and it is about damn time we stop tolerating heartless, bigoted discrimination against people for simply being who they are. For a brief moment during the Obama Administration, it appeared that the courts might step up to protect LGBTQ+ rights. Today, with the judiciary increasingly stacked against those protections, it is clear that equality cannot be left to chance or judicial whim. Congress must act.

Federal civil rights laws already prohibit discrimination based on race, religion, and gender. Those same protections should be explicitly extended to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. As your Representative, I will sponsor the Equality Act to guarantee consistent, nationwide protections for the LGBTQ+ community in employment, housing, healthcare, education, and public accommodations.

Legalize Marijuana

We must end the incredibly harmful and wasteful “war on drugs” against marijuana. It has wasted billions of taxpayer dollars and caused lasting harm to individuals and communities without improving public safety.

As your Representative, I will sponsor legislation to legalize the production, sale, and use of marijuana, expunge federal marijuana convictions, and provide incentives for states to do the same. I will also ensure that a meaningful share of tax revenue from legal marijuana is reinvested in communities historically harmed by the war on drugs.

Legalization is projected to save billions in law enforcement and incarceration costs and generate new revenue for education, public services, and treatment programs. And regulating marijuana like alcohol will provide for better control, which will ensure product safety, purity, potency, and medical access. It will also free law enforcement to focus on serious and violent crime, where resources are truly needed.

Reform the Criminal Justice System

Under Joseph Stalin, repression was so severe that Soviet gulags held 22% of the world's entire prison population. Just kidding, that's in the United States today.

There is exceptionally little about our criminal justice system that works or seems just, and that was true before the U.S. Department of Justice began running interference for Trump and other rich and powerful friends of Jeffrey Epstein. The vast majority of issues within our criminal justice system are governed at the state and local levels, but there are several federal levers that can be pulled. As your Representative, I will sponsor legislation to end the federal death penalty, eliminate federal funding for for-profit prisons, abolish federal civil asset forfeiture,—which operates on a guilty-until-proven-innocent basis—and repeal mandatory minimum sentences at the federal level. These reforms are necessary to move our justice system away from punishment for profit and toward fairness, accountability, and rehabilitation.

Re-Enact the Federal Assault Weapons Ban

Enough is enough. Gun violence is a national crisis, and our country can and must do more to prevent it. We need elected officials who have the courage to do what’s right and face down the gun lobbyists. Firearms are now the leading cause of death for children and teenagers in the United States, but our elected officials are too cowardly to address this crisis.

Assault weapons are just a subset, but they are disproportionately used in mass shootings and are exceptionally lethal. There is no legitimate civilian need for weapons built for war, they are not necessary for hunting or self-defense, and their presence puts communities and schools at risk. I support a permanent federal ban on assault weapons to reduce mass shooting deaths and keep children safe.

And, what's more, we have evidence that such a ban works. Congress enacted a federal assault weapons ban in 1994, and mass shooting deaths declined. When Congress allowed the assault weapons ban to lapse in 2004, mass shooting fatalities rose sharply. As your Representative, I will sponsor the Revised Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act to permanently ban the private sale, possession, and use of "assault weapons" and large-capacity magazines. Protecting children and communities must come before the interests of gun lobbyists.

Abolish ICE

We must abolish ICE. Fear-based enforcement by an army of masked agents is not immigration policy. ICE, created in 2003, is a rogue agency led and staffed by those too incompetent and/or malevolent to conduct operations without terrorizing American cities. ICE has a budget larger than most militaries in the world. Some people wanted cheaper groceries and this is what we got instead.

As your Representative, I will sponsor legislation to abolish ICE by eliminating and recouping all funding allocated to ICE. This should be priority number one to fixing our immigration enforcement system.

I will also sponsor legislation to slash funding for ICE (or its successor), the Department of Homeland Security, and Customs and Border Protection each of which has spent (at least) the past year terrorizing American cities, prohibit the use of masks by any federal agents, require higher recruitment and training standards (including strict oversight by Congress) for federal agents, and eliminate immunity from prosecution for all federal agents who violate the law. I will also lead the charge on Congressional hearings to hold responsible all those individuals who have broken the law, from the heads of DHS, ICE, and CBP down to the masked thugs who murdered Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

People shouldn't be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.

Providing a Real Pathway to Citizenship

America can have secure borders and uphold human dignity. Today’s immigration enforcement system is broken—not because we lack toughness, but because we lack humanity, consistency, and common sense. I support comprehensive reform that keeps communities safe, respects due process, and treats immigrants as people—not political talking points.

The American Dream™ is built on those seeking out a better life. The American story is an immigrant story, including here in Utah. Many Utahns are descendants of immigrants who arrived in Utah after years of struggle and built this place we call home. As your Representative, I will sponsor legislation providing for significant additional federal funding for new and existing immigration judges to expedite review of applications for residency or citizenship. And we can no longer treat undocumented status as a permanent barrier to citizenship. As your Representative, I will sponsor legislation giving amnesty to undocumented immigrants and thus making them eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship.

Pass the Green New Deal

Donald Trump and Republicans want America to remain wedded to the old dominant energy sources of last century despite fossil fuels being less efficient, more expensive, and dirtier than renewable sources of energy. The inversion that plagues the valley and the air quality along the Wasatch Front are physical manifestations of our state's overuse of dirty energy. We could have probably avoided invading and kidnapping Venezuela's president if our federal government wasn’t in bed with the fossil fuel industry. We need an energy strategy for the future. Renewable energy production is already cheaper and more efficient than the same energy production from fossil fuels. There is no reason (other than corruption and/or misunderstanding the science) for the U.S. to stay stuck in the past. Every Democrat and Republican that votes against renewable energy investment in the U.S. indirectly supports Chinese energy dominance in the 21st century.

As your Representative, I will co-sponsor the Green New Deal to make major public investments in 100% clean, renewable energy and create high-quality jobs in the process. Given Utah's massive natural advantages, we are uniquely positioned to lead in geothermal, wind, and solar energy.

Protect Utah's Public Resources

Utah is world renowned for its natural beauty. Which is why Senator Mike Lee has repeatedly proposed selling millions of acres of federal public lands in Utah….? As your Representative, I will co-sponsor the America's Red Rock Wilderness Act, which will protect more than 8 million acres of Bureau of Land Management land in Utah, set a federally mandated water level for the Great Salt Lake, and secure federal funding needed to restore the Great Salt Lake. I will also fight with all the tools at my disposal (both officially and via public shaming) against any future attempts by Mike Lee or any others to sell Utah’s public lands for a quick buck.

End Forever Wars

It’s 1990, a Republican is president and we are going to war over oil. 
It’s 2003, a Republican is president and we are going to war over oil.
It’s 2026, a Republican is president and we are going to war over oil.

Americans didn’t vote for this. Why are U.S. troops involved in firefights in Venezuela? Why is Trump bloviating about invading Greenland? Americans don’t want any of this. Congress has abdicated its constitutional responsibility to decide when and where our country goes to war for far too long. Too many politicians across the political establishment (yes, that includes MAGA now) have treated military force as the default tool of foreign policy, often to serve corporate interests rather than to protect Americans.

As your Representative, I will vote against any funding for non-defensive military operations undertaken without Congressional approval, even when buried in omnibus bills. I will also introduce and support resolutions requiring the return of all U.S. troops from unauthorized overseas deployments and will work to reassert Congress’s war-making powers.

Stop Supporting Israel's Occupation of Gaza

American taxpayers should not pay to support any wars of aggression or violations of international law. As your Representative, I will call for an immediate halt to U.S. military funding and security assistance to the Israeli government until Israel's occupation of Gaza unconditionally ceases. Any future assistance to Israel should be strictly conditioned on verified compliance with international law, unfettered access for humanitarian aid, protection of civilians, and meaningful steps toward a permanent ceasefire and a just political resolution. As your Representative, I will also redirect any such future assistance toward humanitarian relief, reconstruction, and diplomacy that advances equal rights, accountability, and lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians alike.

Statehood for DC and Puerto Rico

New states are admitted to the U.S. through a federal law passed by a simple majority in both the House of Representatives and Senate followed by Presidential signature. America started off with 13 states and currently has 50. Democracy only works when every citizen has an equal voice. Today, more than 4 million Americans in Washington, DC and Puerto Rico are denied full representation in Congress. That is taxation without representation—plain and simple—and it has no place in a modern democracy.

I support full statehood for Washington, DC and Puerto Rico because civil rights should not depend on your ZIP code. Statehood is about fairness, dignity, and democracy. No more second-class citizenship. No more excuses. It’s time to continue the work of democracy.