ISSUES

  • As taxpayers, we are paying full-time premiums for part-time effort from many of our elected leaders. Pennsylvania is one of 10 full-time legislatures in the United States. Even though Pennsylvania lawmakers receive generous salaries, benefits, and pensions, approximately half of the 50-member Senate and a fourth of the 203-member House of Representatives maintain other business activities in addition to their legislative duties.* Private business interests bias elected officials’ decisions and distract them from the important work they have been elected (and richly compensated) to perform.

    This must stop.

    As your senator, I will work to restrict full-time elected officials from engaging in external business activities for the duration of their service. I also commit to not engage in private business activities or trade stocks while in office - you will have my undivided attention and fidelity. Help me create a Commonwealth where your public servant’s efforts are spent exclusively in service to you.

  • While Pennsylvania legislators have received an automatic cost of living adjustment since 1995, the minimum wage here in Pennsylvania has remained fixed at $7.25 since 2009, when the federal minimum wage was first implemented. We tie with 21 other states for having the lowest minimum wage in the nation.

    It is manifestly unfair for elected officials to give themselves an annual cost of living adjustment without doing the same for the poorest wage earners in the state. If we can’t afford to pay our poorest workers a living wage, then we can’t afford to pay more for leaders who already have it too good.

    I will propose legislation requiring any legislative cost of living adjustments to be applied to the minimum wage. This legislation isn’t about fixing wages - it’s going to take a lot more than that to get them where they need to be. What this is about is reciprocity; let’s make it so elected officials can’t adjust their salaries without first taking care of us.

  • Years ago, I was an avid free market libertarian. However, I only held that view because I hadn’t done any research. Unconstrained markets generate great wealth, but they concentrate that wealth in the hands of the wealthy, leaving the workers who generate that wealth with less and less. There are no data to show that money trickles down. If you need further proof, consult your own pocket book and see how rich you feel.

    Meanwhile, data from the US Department of the Treasury show workers associations make average Americans richer across all industries, ensuring them a greater share of the profits they generate for companies. Even non-unionized employees see wage increases as a result of increased workers association membership in their region.

    We have to reign in corporate greed and empower Pennsylvanians to effectively negotiate the best possible wages and working conditions with our employers. That’s the most evidenced path towards ensuring better lives for ourselves and our loved ones. I support expanding the middle class by helping you take home more of the profits you generate.

  • While working at the 87th legislative district office in 2020, I spoke with numerous constituents and non-constituents alike who insisted there was widespread election fraud. Every one of those claims I heard was entirely unevidenced - I never spoke with anyone who said they witnessed fraud themselves, knew someone who had, or who provided proof of fraud

    I don’t normally feel comfortable speaking in absolute terms, but I can say with near-total confidence that fears of widespread election fraud in Pennsylvania elections, both then and now, are unfounded. Don’t believe me - believe the staggering 43 court victories upholding the results of that election.* So long as they retain demonstrable veracity, I commit to upholding the results of free and fair elections here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, regardless of their outcomes.

  • ICE may indeed have legally authorized duties within our government - kidnapping children, violently suppressing peaceful protesters, performing arrests and raiding homes without warrants, torturing detainees, and murdering civilians are not among them. I decry those illegal, cruel, and wicked activities and anyone who participates in them, and I encourage you to join me in peacefully doing so. In the immortal words of Edmund Burke: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”