Healthcare

I know healthcare - I’ve been a registered nurse for over 20 years. I’ve cared for patients in neuro ICU and medical units. Serving as an educator for nursing students and new staff, and leading teams of educators across multiple sites has taught me a lot about the healthcare needs of our community and how to fulfill them. All Minnesotans deserve access to quality, affordable healthcare and we need to do the hard work necessary to eliminate the racial disparities within our healthcare systems. Together we can:

Pass Healthcare for All

I support measures that increase access and affordability of healthcare for Minnesotans. As a founding member of the Minnesota Health Plan (MHP) Caucus, I believe we need to pass the Minnesota Health Plan to ensure every Minnesotan has quality affordable care when they need it, including mental healthcare, preventative care, vision, dental, equipment and prescriptions. Not only is this the humane policy approach, it’s also the fiscally responsible policy approach. 

Increase Transparency in Billing

Decisions about care should be in the hands of patients, families and providers, and all Minnesotans deserve transparency in the billing process. No one should have to jump through hoops for treatment and everyone deserves the care they need to be well; this includes mental healthcare, preventative healthcare, and women’s healthcare. 

Protect Reproductive Rights

All care that a patient receives should be left between the patient and their doctor– not politicians. Now more than ever, it is vital that our state legislators work to protect people’s fundamental right to reproductive healthcare, including abortion care that is free from penalty and judgment.

Democracy

Our democracy is at a crossroads and the stakes couldn’t be higher. Everyone's voice matters and everyone should have the freedom to vote. Democracy is under attack; we're seeing a coordinated effort to make it more difficult for people to exercise their freedom to vote– often Black, brown and Indigenous people. This is by design. We have very secure elections and Minnesotans consistently have the highest voter turnout in the country. We need to make it easier for people to cast their ballot, not harder by:

Expanding and Modernizing Voter Registration

We should be protecting our nation-leading same day registration system, implementing automatic voter registration, allowing pre-registration of 16 and 17 year olds and securing and updating Minnesota’s Voter Registration List.

Ensuring Every Minnesotan has Access to the Ballot

I support  implementing full early voting and ensuring its accessible to all Minnesotans; creating a permanent mail-in-balloting list; repealing the misguided law that limits to three the number of voters a person can help in the polling place; sponsoring free public transportation to get to your polling place; restoring the vote for those who are no longer incarcerated; and making election day a state holiday.

Enacting Protections for Election Workers

Across the country we are seeing increased threats and worse directed at election workers and Minnesota is no exception. This is unacceptable and we need to be sure all election workers are and feel safe to do the very important work of administering our elections. Investing in the safety of our neighbors doing this work is the right thing to do.

Supporting Families

As the needs of families evolve, we need to enact measures that ensure our economy evolves with them. We need an economy that works for every Minnesotan, regardless of race, gender, or zip code– one that makes it easier, not harder, to support a family with a full-time salary. We can build this economy by: 

Passing Paid Family and Medical Leave & Earned Sick and Safe Time

No one should have to choose between paying the rent and caring for a sick loved one. Most Minnesotans don't have access to paid leave when they must care for a new baby, an elderly parent, or themselves. This issue is personal for me - I know what it feels like to choose if I will go without a paycheck or go back to work while having a child in the hospital, no parent should have to make that choice. When I’m elected to the Senate, I will work to ensure we pass Paid Family and Medical Leave and Earned Sick and Safe Time bills into law.

Making Childcare More Affordable

Every family deserves affordable and accessible care for their children and those doing that critically important work deserve to make a living wage. Child care is outrageously expensive – often prohibitively so. Some (often women) are being driven out of the workforce because they cannot afford childcare. We need to take steps to make childcare an affordable option for all working families, this requires investment. I’ll continue the work to raise the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) rates to the federal standard,  75th percentile, of the most current survey and forecast the program to eliminate wait lists. I will work to raise income eligibility for CCAP programs, and to create a Department of Early Childhood. All of this will increase affordability and access for families across the state. 

Expanding Access to Affordable Housing

For too many Minnesotans, the idea of having a safe and comfortable home is out of reach. We need more affordable units, including those large enough to meet the needs of our Somali neighbors with large families. Owning a home is a path to generational wealth,  but we have significant racial disparities in our communities– while nearly 75% of white families in Minnesota own a home, less than 25% of Black families do. We can and must do better by providing grants for building more affordable housing units in and around Rochester as well as grants for mortgage down payments. 

Education

As an educator, I know the opportunities a quality education can bring. All children in Minnesota deserve access to a quality education - regardless of race, religion or zip code - and all the opportunities that brings. For too long, Minnesota schools have not had the resources they need. We need to invest in smaller class sizes and pay our teachers better wages for the quality work they do with our most precious assets– our children and grandchildren. Together, we can do this by: 

Fully-Funding Public Schools at the State Level

Instead of doing their job and fully funding our public schools, Senate Republicans have passed that burden to working families and seniors in the form of local tax levies. This puts an undue burden on families in our communities, and punishes students living in school districts who cannot afford to raise their tax bill. When I’m elected to the Senate, I will be a fierce advocate for our fully-funding our public schools at the state level, just as I have been during my time in the House. I’ve been a fierce advocate for and co-author of bills to fully fund the special education and English language cross subsidies, increase the number of nurses and school counselors, provide all students free meals,  and increase teachers of color. 

Increasing Wrap-around Services in Schools

Fully funding public schools must include providing more counselors, nurses, social workers, and psychologists to help students deal with the incredible stresses of our modern society. When I’m elected to the Senate, I will continue to advocate for the “wrap-around” full service school concept. Now is the time for bold innovation. We need to apply the best science and ideas to adapt our education system to meet the changing needs of our students today.

Investing in Early Childhood Care and Learning

The first years of a child's life are critical for brain development and the investments we make in early care and learning pay dividends for generations to come. When I’m elected to the Senate, I will fight for early childhood just like I have during my time in the House. Early learning and care are inextricably linked and we need policies that reflect that. Early childhood teachers should be recognized as educators and their pay and benefits should be in line with other educators. Investing in our littlest Minnesotans is an investment in our future.

Thriving Communities

I’m committed to doing everything I can to build a just and inclusive Minnesota where everyone has what they need to be cared for, safe and thrive. We can absolutely do that if we work together. Important measures to build thriving communities include:

Ending Gun Violence

Gun violence is a public health crisis. As a mom of three, I want to ensure my children, and yours, are safe when they’re at school, work, a friend’s house or in any public space. As a nurse, I’ve cared for the victims of gun violence and I have seen up close the damage and destruction it leaves in its wake. Like the vast majority of Minnesotans, I support universal criminal background checks and extreme risk protection orders, sometimes called red flag laws. As a longtime volunteer and former co-lead of the Rochester, MN chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, I care deeply about this issue and will continue to fight for reforms that will protect the ones we love.

Strengthening Public Safety

Everyone deserves to be safe in their community. We can build communities where everyone feels and is safe - right now that is not the case. As with many other issues, this disproportionately impacts communities of color. We know that safe communities are resourced communities and we need to ensure people have what they need, not only to survive, but to thrive. To do this, we must reform the way our communities are policed by banning no-knock warrants and ensuring accountability for police officers who break the law. We also need to ensure that police departments and communities have the resources they need to meet the needs of our neighbors - social workers, drug counselors, and trauma-informed approaches are necessary to meet the many needs people are facing. 

Combating Climate Change

The climate crisis is an existential threat to our state and our health. We are experiencing higher temperatures, more extreme storms, increased health costs, and increased costs for infrastructure repair and maintenance. This crisis affects all Minnesotans, but this is another issue where Black, brown, and indigenous communities disproportionately suffer the most serious effects. Bold action is needed now to effectively change these outcomes. I believe that all Minnesotans deserve clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, and a healthy place to call home. I will continue to work to bring Minnesota to the front of the alternative energy economy with bold ideas and legislation.