Office Sought
U.S. Representative, District 10
2022 LID Questionnaire Response
If elected, what would be your top legislative priority?
We must stop the spread of urban areas of exclusion. Gentrification has priced out younger generations and minorities and suppressed generational growth and opportunity.
1. We must address the affordability crisis and improve quality of life in urban areas by building stronger protections for working people. We need to improve financial health for millions of people and reduce their debt burdens, recover our small businesses, and tackle rampant income inequality. As a former regulator, I am running to hold monopolies accountable, cancel student debt, increase the number of affordable housing units in NYC, and subsidize healthy food. I have personally door knocked 40,000 doors and have seen hundreds of people waiting in line for food through COVID, a rise in homelessness, and tuition rates increasing. The median rent for a studio apartment in Manhattan or Brooklyn should not be $2,700 a month.
2. Enforcing equal opportunity for all and expanding same day voter registration, voting rights, equal access to jobs, and equal representation in every institution. Many communities in our district, particularly minorities, have been neglected by our leadership and have faced the worst of the pandemic. I will prioritize mass voter registration efforts, creating spaces for new leaders who represent diverse interests, enforce equal opportunity hiring, and ensure our government equitably delivers services for everyone in our district. To take on big power, our campaign leads with our community and refuses corporate PAC, lobbyist, and other big special interest money. Our voices need a space at the table. We had less than $25 when my parents first moved here and I grew up in affordable housing with my neighbors from the Asian diaspora. Many of the women and girls, including me, experienced violence and I became an advocate for our rights, to ensure immigrant women have bank accounts, are financially literate, and can stand up and protect themselves. I support Medicare for All and menstrual equity. I advocate to close the gender wage gap, enforce DEIA (diversity, equity, inclusion, and access) metrics in every workplace, build LGBTQIA executive leadership, penalize sexual harassment and pregnancy discrimination, and build pathways for success for immigrants who do not speak English as their primary language.
3. Building a 21st century government and investing in climate resiliency, public education, and clean cities. The biggest threat to our future is the climate crisis. As a first generation Asian American, I have lived through terrifying monsoon rains and extreme winter heat waves. It is necessary for Indigenous Peoples, immigrants, community members, and city dwellers to have a voice at the table on global climate justice. I fully support passing the Green New Deal and accelerating pathways to net zero emissions. Our campaign advocates for retrofitting more than a million buildings in NYC and for a circular economy, a higher carbon tax, and eliminating all dependence (starting with corporations) on fossil fuels.
How can Congress work to prohibit or limit states like Texas and Florida from enacting legislation that targets transgender children and their families?
Trans and nonbinary rights are human rights and civil rights. Addressing the root causes of anti-TGNCNB violence, discrimination, and transphobic policies requires focusing on public education, policy change, and community advocacy.
● Promote dignity & prevent discrimination in employment, housing, healthcare, and access to public places such as bathrooms.
○ Address housing discrimination by fighting transphobic policies and supporting TGNCNB-inclusive laws, policies, and organizations.
■ Support organizations that are investing in trans-led movements and
safety.
■ Advocate for Congress to pass the Equality Act in order to expand federal civil rights law to include LGBTQ2+ non-discrimination protections.
■ Resist conservatives’ attempts to undermine the Equal Access Law in order to prevent discrimination against TGNCNB individuals within all HUD-assisted programs.
■ Enforce the Supreme Court’s June 2020 Bostock v. Clayton County ruling to protect TGNCNB individuals from employment discrimination.
○ Reverse the Trump administration’s decision to rescind protections for transgender students in public schools.
■ Support transgender students’ access to bathrooms that meet their gender identity.
○ Eliminate transphobic dress code policies in the workplace and in schools.
○ Support policies that help facilitate the full inclusion of TGNC students on sports teams in school athletic programs.
● Eliminate barriers to healthcare.
○ Reverse the Trump administration's decision to remove nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people with regards to healthcare and health insurance.
○ Ban insurance exclusions to transgender healthcare, and pass state laws that allow for transition-related coverage through state Medicaid.
○ Ban religious refusal laws that grant agencies, healthcare facilities, organizations, and businesses license to discriminate against TGNCNB individuals.
● Lessen barriers to accessing gender-affirming ID.
○ Advocate for policies that facilitate gender marker updates on driver’s licenses and birth certificates.
■ Push for the Biden administration to issue an executive order updating the process by which federal agencies change gender markers on IDs.
○ Include a 3rd gender/intersex/gender neutral option on legal documents.
● End the detention of TGNCNB asylum-seekers and utilize alternatives to detention. Transgender and gender non-conforming people matter. It is past time to support this community that has been attacked and marginalized due to stigma and discrimination. We must ensure their rights and safety, increase their access to resources, and mandate accountability in public policy and protection laws.
How can Congress work with the administration to ease the burden placed on asylees seeking refuge from LGBTQ persecution abroad?
Seeking asylum is a human right. Asylum laws are meant to protect anyone who is fleeing persecution and cannot return safely to their home country. However, the current asylum laws in the U.S. often put asylum-seekers at greater risk. We have a strong plan for asylum-seekers to access the safety, asylum, and care that they need and deserve.
● Grant asylum for and end the detention of LGBTQ2+ immigrants fleeing persecution due to their sexual orientation or gender identity.
● Provide support to organizations on the U.S.-Mexico border that serve immigrants and asylum-seekers, including legal non-profits, shelters, humanitarian resources and non-governmental aid organizations.
● Overturn laws that make it more difficult for immigrants to seek asylum.
● Overturn the Trump administration’s “Stay in Mexico” policy, which requires asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico in dangerous and inhumane conditions as they await their immigration court date in the U.S.
○ Restore eligibility for victims of gang violence and domestic violence, as well as for asylum-seekers fleeing political persecution.
○ Stop prosecuting asylum-seekers for misdemeanor illegal entry.
○ Overturn the Trump administration’s rule that places asylum-seekers under greater scrutiny if they traveled through other countries on the way to the U.S. without seeking refuge there.
● End the backlog of more than one million immigration cases by doubling the number of immigration judges, court staff, and interpreters.
● End the illegal detention of asylum-seekers and refugees.
● Increase the number of asylum-seekers and refugees that are welcomed into the country.
● Increase funding for programs that assist with resettlement and provide services for asylees.
● Hold the government accountable for family separations and abuses in detention.
● Abolish ICE.
Do you support full passage of the Equality Act, and will you oppose any version that eliminates any portion (eg, employment, housing, public accommodations, education, federally funded programs, credit, jury service)?
Yes. I advocate for LGBTQ2+ rights through community-led programs, as well as federal, state, and local policy initiatives and believe we must pass federal laws that will protect LGBTQ2+ people from discrimination in housing, healthcare, education, public accommodations, and other key areas, and overturn existing laws that undermine LGBTQ2+ protections. I will work alongside progressives to pressure Congress to pass the Equality Act to ensure there are explicit federal non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ2+ people of which includes:
● End religion-based discrimination against LGBTQ2+ people by overturning religious refusal and exemption policies that grant agencies, organizations, and businesses license to discriminate.
● Ban insurance exclusions to transgender healthcare.
Protect LGBTQ2+ youth and make schools safer.
● Ban conversion therapy across the country.
● Overturn “No Pro Homo” state laws. Require that school districts include LGBTQ2+-affirming content across school curricula.
● Push for enumerated state anti-bullying laws that specifically protect LGBTQ2+ students and include enforcement mechanisms.
● Increase funding for programs that support LGBTQ2+ youth experiencing homelessness.
● Ensure that policies around home care, foster care, and adoption are inclusive, non-discriminatory, and LGBTQ2+-competent.
Expand protections for LGBTQ2+ individuals, and address homophobia and transphobia within the criminal justice system.
● Divest from police, and invest in community-driven safety initiatives to alleviate the impact of police violence on the LGBTQ2+ community.
● Eliminate the “bias rage” or “panic defense” for criminal acts against LGBTQ2+ people.
● Advocate for enumerated hate crime laws on the state level that specifically include sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression, and collect data specifically for these crimes.
● Eliminate laws that criminalize behaviors with a low or negligible risk of HIV transmission.
Grant asylum for and end the detention of LGBTQ2+ immigrants fleeing persecution due to their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Continue to fight for policy and community advocacy that protects trans rights and TGNCNB youth.
What actions will you take to prevent states from curtailing the right to accessible abortion and pre-natal health services?
As a womxn I believe in the right to accessible abortion and prenatal health services. An example of our policy platform for decolonizing birth:
Structural racism is the primary motivating factor behind maternal health disparity in the US. We need to deconstruct the implicit bias and inequities present in our hospitals, from the waiting room, to the delivery room, to the child’s first annual check up a year later.
Problem
Black women in the US are three times more likely to die during childbirth, and their infants are twice as likely to die in the first year of life. The US is the only industrialized nation in the world where rates of maternal and infant mortality are worsening. Additionally, given that there is no universal collection of data in this area, we do not know the extent of the harm being done. Racism creates social inequity that shapes health behavior, and access to quality care. It also influences interactions between clinicians and patients, which are often wrought with subversive racism and implicit bias, leading to health disparities and poorer outcomes.
Our Plan:
We need to decolonize birth and ensure that everyone has appropriate medical support and agency throughout their birthing experience.
● Elevate Black-led community based providers, and integrate doulas, midwives, lactation consultants and community health workers into Medicaid reimbursement structures.
○ Expand New York’s Doula Pilot Program, which covers doula services for Medicaid fee-for-service and Medicaid Managed Care enrollees.
○ Promote value-based payment models that link reimbursement to quality of care, and mandate equitable Medicaid reimbursement for doulas and community health workers.
○ Promote midwifery-led, freestanding birth centers as options for patient centered, low risk birth.
○ Recruit underrepresented minorities into health care fields, and support efforts to pay for recruitment, training of diverse workforce, as well as ongoing training and continuing education as it relates to pregnancy and birth.
○ Integrate pregnancy doulas as part of medical care teams.
○ Support initiatives reinforcing birth choice, or out of hospital birth for low risk women, and ensure it is paid for by insurance.
● Move away from biased certification systems towards culturally competent education structures.
○ Review material being taught in light of the disrespect that black people face in the healthcare system.
○ Support policies and provider trainings aimed at eradication of cultural bias and discrimination in medical practice, medical education, and hospital systems.
● Require universal data collection and disaggregation by race and ethnicity, sex, pregnancy and postpartum status.
○ Ensure morbidity and mortality review committees outside of the hospital review
the causes and circumstances of every maternal, fetal and infant death.
○ Create accountability structures for hospitals, clinics, and other medical practices
that fail to provide evidence based, unbiased, high quality care.
● Expand and maintain health care coverage.
○ Extend medicaid postpartum coverage to at least one year.
○ Support universal health care measures to ensure access to comprehensive primary care throughout the lifespan, with the goal of treating illness that increase risk of poor birth outcomes.
● Create accountability structures for poorly designed systems, and “bad apple” players
○ Link insurance payments to outcomes data - with incentives for improved outcomes
● Promote patient-driven feedback systems that inform practice and policy change.
○ Implement a general input forum or body that could collect information from the ground up.
○ Support patient advisory boards.
● Support the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act, which looks at maternal health beyond the hospital, and addresses social determinants of health like unstable housing, transportation access, and food insecurity.
● Expand paid family leave policies at the federal level.
This Matters:
Maternal health is bigger than pregnancy and birth, and needs to be approached holistically. Food insecurity, economic inequality, trauma and violence can all impact the health of birthing people and their children.
What health care reforms or plans do you support?
As a person with a disability, I support
● Medicare for all.
● Menstrual Equity for people who menstruate
● Survivor Centered Institutions
● Patient access to healthcare data
● Healthcare workers managing healthcare institutions (not PE)
● Addressing healthcare burnout and worker scarcity by easing barriers to entry by reducing healthcare education costs
What is your position on the building of new oil or gas projects?
I am a climate activist, first generation Asian American, and person with a disability.
Our platform is written with the very people who have lived experiences - many of whose voices are never at the table. We brought together hundreds of local climate activists and strongly believe in passing and expanding the Green New Deal. As a climate activist, I believe that:
● Corporations should not receive tax credits for greenwashing (CocaCola for example receives upwards of $500 million to run PR campaigns in the name of ESG)
● People should have a real say in our retirement accounts and how our money is invested - and not allow pension funds or retirement funds to invest in fossil fuels
● Government must institutionalize federal ESG mandates for corporate carbon reduction metrics and directly hold corporations and organizations like MSCI accountable for carbon reduction and governance
● A circular economy is possible, one that bans single use plastic, focuses on global climate justice, retrofits our buildings (and reduces bird mortality), reimagines sanitation and waste management, reduces food waste while tackling food security
I have addressed environmental racism with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, on climate resiliency and increasing access to milk from small dairy farmers in Bangladesh, regulated big banks at the Federal Reserve for climate resiliency pushing mass portfolio fossil fuel divestment, expanded the solar bond jobs market, co-built a forest resilience bond with the Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service to fund wildfire prevention in the state of California, and was a whistleblower holding big corporations and CEOs accountable to reporting environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics at CECP.
My family and I are generations vegetarian, I have never had meat, and I am a first generation Indian American. My family lives in South Asia and my visiting many times since childhood has made me deeply understand how dire the situation is. In India and Bangladesh, I have experienced overpopulation, extreme heat, floods that are five feet high, and a country that loses significant life because of climate change - with family members who have never used toilet paper or plastic, dying from extreme conditions. I fight for those on the frontlines of climate emergencies through organizing and activism. The United States has a serious responsibility,and I will champion climate justice and enforcement in every industry to set and reach bold goals.
I am challenging an incumbent who takes money from Trump supporters and organizations including SIGMA which represents fuel marketers. He takes corporate PAC money. We cannot wait for him to decide when he wants to retire to set an urgent call to climate action.
What actions will you take to expand the supply and transmission of renewable energy?
Retrofitting our buildings, designing a circular economy, and transitioning stranded assets and existing natural gas infrastructure into green renewable energy.
Large corporations have recently invested billions into natural gas pipelines, power plants, and shipping terminals intended to operate for decades, which contribute to global warming. Renewable energy needs its own mature competitor to challenge natural gas.
Our Plan
We must clean up natural gas. Clean technologies can compete on level ground by essentially converting green electricity into natural gas through three successive steps:
1. Liberate hydrogen from water using green electricity (electrolysis).
2. Take CO2 out of the air using green electricity (direct air capture).
3. Combine the green hydrogen and CO2 to make carbon-neutral natural gas.
Actions that promote this efficient clean energy substitution include:
1. Set aggressive decarbonization goals for energy sectors.
2. Incentivize long-term storage for carbon-neutral energy.
3. Invest in research and development related to procurement to optimize long-term green energy storage technologies. Improve economies of scale of the new technologies.
4. Secure private sector buy-in from firms owning natural gas infrastructure that would otherwise become stranded assets in a clean energy system.
5. Monitor and set penalties for harmful methane leakage.
This Matters
With our plan, all of the current natural gas pipes and power plants can remain unchanged, but the fuel running through them will no longer contribute to warming the planet. To realize clean energy into our businesses, homes, and networks, we must build on existing infrastructure and turn established fossil fuel industries green.
What actions will you take to protect voting rights?
Our country has seen voting rights come under attack, especially in ways which target minority communities. In 2021 alone, Florida, Georgia, Texas, and Arizona have created laws to stop voting by-mail and other processes that make voting more accessible and affordable. To combat this,
Our Plan:
● Make election day a federal holiday, ensuring employees can’t be fired or penalized for missing work to vote.
● Amend voter registration laws:
○ Allow federal same day voter registration, registration online or in person and no-excuse absentee or mail-in ballots.
● Pass an amended H.R. 1, also known as the For The People’s Act. Amendments would include:
○ Stronger regulation of gerrymandering.
■ Districts must be drawn as to not include any unreasonable shapes that would connect geographically distant communities, and districts should not be connected solely through a single road or highway.
■ Districts will be drawn by an independent redistricting commission made of non-partisan and partisan officials.
○ Stronger enforcement on dark money:
■ Constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United.
■ Requiring super PACs and corporate PACs to disclose their donors.
■ Require online platforms and social media sites to publicly disclose who is providing any political advertisements.
■ Crack down on foreign companies donating to super PACs.
● Add a Chair to the Federal Election Commission and overturn its legal provision of an equally divided panel between Democrats and Republicans. Provide further enforcement power to ensure voting machines are secure.
● Raise the campaign contribution limit from $2,800 to $5,000.
● Pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and ensure that it is nationally enforceable.
○ Reinforce the ban on racial gerrymandering.
○ Push for preclearance standards nationally and update them so that they include state legislation going back to at least 2000.
○ Provide more funding to the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights division so that laws that are racially-discriminatory can be identified and federally struck down.
● Allow 17-year olds the ability to vote in primaries if they are 18 at the time of the general election.
● Support campaign finance public matching.
This Matters
Voting reform needs to be both a state and federal priority.
What actions will you take to reduce gun violence?
We Need Gun Control
What we advocate for
Gun violence is an epidemic. We must pass common sense gun laws, minimize the influence of the NRA, increase research and funding for gun violence prevention, and devote more resources to proven non-violent solutions, such as community-based interventions.
Problem
Gun violence in the United States is out of control. Every day, more than 100 Americans are killed with guns and 200 more are shot and wounded. Police shootings, domestic violence, community violence, gun suicide and mass shootings are all pieces of this problem, and they are tearing this country and communities apart. Although over 90% of Americans support background checks on gun sales, a bipartisan bill on this cannot even receive a hearing in the Senate due to the influence of the gun lobby (i.e. the NRA), which funds many of the politicians making decisions about gun control. Politicians are more concerned with protecting their funding than the interests and lives of their constituents
Our plan
● Reduce the number of guns--both legal and illegal--in the U.S.
● Invest in evidence-based, community-driven strategies to address community violence: group violence intervention, relationship-based street outreach, community mediation organizations, and hospital-based violence intervention programs.
a) Apply pressure to lawmakers to prioritize community investment.
b) Strengthen grassroots education on gun safety.
c) Address police violence, and acknowledge that police violence is gun violence.
d) Remove police from behavioral crisis calls, and invest in community-based alternatives.
● Incentivize businesses to invest in community safety.
a) Encourage stores to end gun sales and prohibit customers from carrying guns in their stores.
b) Pressure businesses to end donations to NRA-backed politicians.
● Demand congressional accountability.
a) Urge for Senate action for gun reform. Push for Congress to increase funding for research on gun violence via the CDC.
b) Confront NRA influence in our government.
i) Block attempts by the NRA to erode gun safety laws.
ii) Apply pressure on state and local politicians who accept money from the NRA.
This Matters
Gun control saves lives. The safety and security of our communities depends on holding people accountable with common sense laws when they practice their Second Amendment Rights.
Do you support reinstating the assault weapons ban?
We support a ban on assault weapons, enforcing limits on high-capacity magazines, and cracking down on straw purchasing.
Do you support background checks for firearm purchases?
Yes, we must close loopholes and mandate universal background checks.
Please list your current endorsements
Kristin Richardson Jordan
Unified Black Caucus
504 Democratic Club for People with Disabilities
