Question 1: What talent, experience, and expertise would you bring to the office of state representative?
My over two decades of community organizing and my pragmatic approach to change are all part of the skillsets I bring as a candidate to the statehouse. My body of work shows that I can navigate bureaucracies, bullies, discrimination, and beta males all that we see and contend with in Harrisburg. All of my work has been about serving the different communities of Philadelphia and beyond. Whether it’s my work with the Philadelphia Police Department and Department of Public Health in helping to fight systemic issues within their ranks, helping to create new directives and policies that change the way they interact with the LGBTQ communities, or training them in how to deal with their implicit biases. My work in setting up free healthcare and mental health clinics for the uninsured or underinsured. Working on Saturdays to provide free mental health evaluations for undocumented /immigrant victims of crimes so they can get their visas. To creating one of the largest pandemic food distribution programs in the city for the most marginalized and building coalitions and partnerships with Penn and Drexel to provide testing and vaccines for them. Or my work to help those facing homelessness and or addiction. I have been on the front lines of the fight for equity and equality for decades. It is easy for people to get up and talk about the issues we should all care about but to have lived it, survived it, and then help make change within all of the very systems that oppressed you is the real work. We are missing both the lived and professional experience needed to profoundly affect change in Harrisburg.
Question 2: What is your plan to win this election with regards to fundraising, field, and votes?
As a Latina trans woman, I have had to work twice as hard as everyone else in everything I do. I currently work 2 jobs while campaigning, so hard work and perseverance are a part of me and part of my ground game. Our plan is well underway: we launched early knowing that this race will consist of incremental growth and then rapid growth once on the ballot. The results of Election Day are the product of our team’s effort and ability to build a structure quickly that utilizes volunteers and optimizes time. With both our paid and volunteer field we will utilize phone banking for voter outreach, education and id, and in-person door knocking to meet and engage nomination petition signers and voters. In January alone we made over 2,000 calls. To date we have raised over $39,000 and counting and will hold our second fundraiser next week.
Our plan is to garner union endorsements and political action committees resources and support to help fill the campaign coffers for necessary outreach with the goal of turning out the vote, both mail in voters and those at the polls.
Question 3: What endorsements do you have or are you seeking, if any?
We have: Incumbent State Rep. Brian Sims, State Senator and Vice President of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party Sharif Street, PA State Rep. Joe Hohenstein, City Councilmember Mark Squilla, LGBTQ activist Kendall Stephens, Muslim advocate and community leader Salima Suswell, MA State Senator Julian Cyr, former Vice President of Harrisburg City Council Ben Allatt, President of Yardley Borough Council David Bria, Actress and Activist Sandra Bernhard and the LPAC endorsements. We are actively seeking: more unions, more PACs and more people power.
Question 4: What would be your three highest priorities as a legislator?
My highest priorities as a legislator is first to continue building relationships in Harrisburg and with the constituents of the 182nd district to help identify the needs in the district. No candidate can just go into Harrisburg and think they can make a change on their own. I then plan to identify what legislation is currently being worked on and what role I can play in either fighting for or against it depending on how it will affect the constituents and what committees I am appointed to. My legislative priorities are economic recovery particularly for families and small businesses, healthcare, safety, and justice reform.
Question 5: What actions should the Pennsylvania legislature take regarding PK-12 school funding in the Commonwealth?
There are millions of dollars that should have gone to the Philadelphia school district, however, our governing bodies are withholding necessary funds and playing party politics. In finding a funding formula that is equitable, I look to the Basic Education Funding Commission, where all students have equal access to critical resources which is far more equitable than the Basic Education Funding (BEF) framework that controls our current state education funding. I will work closely with AFT, and PFT to make sure our educators and unions are at the table and represented in Harrisburg to fight for an equitable funding model.
Question 6: What is your position on fracking? Please address whether you support a ban on fracking or support a tax on fracking.
I believe that fracking is slowly destroying our lands and ecosystems. Water should not be flammable. I also feel that fracking has been pushed on landowners by unscrupulous companies who seek profit over people. It impacts communities not too far from Philadelphia and as we do not live in a vacuum especially when it comes to impacts on our environment, we too will suffer the ecological devastation from fracking. When it was proposed I found it ludicrous that we would allow our resources to be stripped of our land without so much as a tax. Well turns out we were one of the only states to allow our lands to be pilfered without so much as a tax incentive. The health impact we are now seeing, I believe will be detrimental for generations.
I would like to see the data that tracks the birth rates and cancer rates of the communities in the commonwealth with the highest levels of fracking to see what the long term impacts are for allowing such a practice. For all those reasons and more, I support a ban on fracking.
Question 7: What would you do as a state legislator to address housing needs in the homeownership
and rental markets?
As someone who has faced poverty, discrimination, and homelessness, I know firsthand how hard it is to find a decent place to live let alone an affordable one. I currently have to work multiple jobs just to cover the bills. Affordable safe housing should be available for all people. We need to protect our renters from predatory practices and landlords. If you own property, you must maintain it, regardless of if you live out of state. We must change the way we allow developers to just buy up entire neighborhoods and push out long-time residents to build homes that the families who have lived here for generations cannot keep or afford to purchase. I do believe in progress, but I believe progress can also be made fairly and equitably. We need to utilize some of the abandoned homes in our city to build safe affordable housing. Large developers should also be made to invest back into the same communities that they make millions in profit from. We also need to reevaluate what we consider affordable housing. $1,200.00 a month for a studio is not “affordable”. We also need to create more pathways to homeownership particularly in the most impoverished communities.
Question 8: What is the legislature’s role regarding reproductive healthcare?
As a proud transwoman and someone who has worked in public health for over a decade making sure marginalized communities have access to healthcare, reproductive health, and protecting patient’s ability to make their own decisions that impact their body is both something I am personally and professionally invested in and will be a champion for in Harrisburg. The legislative role in reproductive health care to me is much like the role of religion, there should be a separation. Currently, established law is under attack on both the state level and the federal level as we await the court case to overturn Roe v. Wade. Let it be known, I support Roe v. Wade, and I will stand with those in elected office and communities in calls to action to oppose any measure that would chip away at citizens’ rights to make the best decision for them and their families.
Question 9: A small fraction of bills sponsored by Democrats move out of the House. What would be
your strategy for getting things done in a highly partisan General Assembly?
As a Latina Transwoman, I have had to learn that building relationships even with those you may disagree with at times allows you to get the work done. We are elected to represent the people, not our own personal interests. We must have the ability to put our own emotions to the side and find ways that we can work together for the greater good. I hope to win the Democratic Primary, then for the General Election work to secure our Democratic seats in the PA legislature and help flip county seats where an additional field or financial boost will greatly help us to secure the majority in the House. Until we have a majority, we will continue at the current stalemate where Republicans control the ability to allow our bills out of committee and up for a vote. As it stands our legislative agendas die before even being brought to the general body.