Endorsing Bernie Sanders And Encouraging The Progressive Wing To Unite Behind Sanders... With An Aside On Trade And Climate

-by Rachel Ventura

I am sure that it was a gut punch for Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg to get the call from the corner office of the DNC encouraging them to drop out before Super Tuesday. I am sure that both still think that they are the strongest candidate for the general election, but they sucked it up and did it anyway. We still don’t know what these candidates were offered in exchange for their Biden endorsement, but I am sure that whatever was offered made the painful decision easier to make.

Right now, the people who worked tirelessly for Elizabeth Warren are also feeling that sting. I can identify with the women who still want a woman president and in my lifetime I will work to make that happen. Last night I participated in a Medicare for All townhall meeting and there were several women there who expressed their grief, and I encouraged them to move quickly and unite behind the only progressive in the race, Bernie Sanders.

Former 2016 Sanders Delegate and 2020 Warren delegate, state Representative Will Guzzardi didn’t hesitate to shift back to Bernie Sanders following Warren's withdrawal from the race.

I went on the Ben Joravsky show today as well on Chicago’s Progressive Talk Radio, WCPT 820am, to encourage supporters who wanted Warren to come out to Illinois’ 11th congressional district and canvass for Rachel Ventura and Bernie Sanders. If we want Medicare for All, The Green New Deal, a $15/hour living wage, meaningful criminal justice reform, a pathway towards citizenship for undocumented people pursuing the American dream, or meaningful campaign finance reform, there is only one candidate left in the race. From now until March 17th our campaign will be knocking on doors for Rachel Ventura and Bernie Sanders. In Aurora we are helping Junaid Afeef who is running for States Attorney. In Naperville, Illinois we are helping Denika McMillen who is running for State Representative. In Bolingbrook, Illinois we are helping Dagmara Avalar and in Plainfield, Illinois Michael Crowner is the progressive choice for State Senate 49.

Working for progressive change needs to happen up and down the ballot and that is where we all need to be. We need to be united and continue to push for the change that we want to see in the world.

As someone who has battled the establishment and won, I feel confident that we will win if we are united. I also know, that as someone who has been a strong voice for the people on the Will County Board that voters genuinely appreciate being represented. When our campaign knocks on doors in the overlapping parts of the 9th County Board District it is always nice to hear positive feedback from voters who have followed my fights for clean water, fair taxes, affordable housing, higher wages and a sustainable future. I know that people also appreciate Bernie Sanders 40 years of consistency and tireless advocacy for the marginalized and people who our political system has forgotten.

This is where I am most concerned with a potential Biden nomination. The Democratic establishment supported a corporate Democrat through the 2016 nomination process and they lost to Donald Trump. We cannot afford to make that mistake in 2020. We cannot afford 4 more years of Donald Trump. Bernie Sanders is the only candidate left standing who is speaking directly to poor people, people of color, women, and those who are not equally represented in our political system. We need a candidate who gives those people a reason to go to the polls in November, not the status quo. They deserve a candidate who will make it easier for everyday Americans to run for office through implementing policies like publicly financed campaigns and an end to citizen’s united.

From day one my campaign has been powered by supporters of both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. I am asking those who supported Warren to join me in supporting Bernie Sanders.

We will all be watching Michigan, a battleground state where Bernie Sanders came from behind and won in 2016. The driving issue in 2016 was trade and once again, it will be an issue that separates the corporate Democrat, Joe Biden and the progressive Democrat, Bernie Sanders. Donald Trump will be touting his “fulfilled” campaign promise of bringing jobs back with his United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA, also referred to as NAFTA 2.0 trade renegotiation bill). While there were some small provisional gains in that trade deal, it was not good enough and we will continue to lose jobs because of the lack of environmental standards. I would have voted “no” on it unlike my opponent. Bernie Sanders did vote “no.” In sharp contrast, Joe Biden has supported free trade agreements like NAFTA and the China Free Trade Agreement. He supported Barack Obama’s TPP that caused Hillary Clinton to lose in the Midwest where manufacturing jobs have been decimated by these trade agreements.

At the end of the day the election in these states is going to be very similar to the 2016 cycle. In a hypothetical match-up between Trump and Biden, Donald Trump will be touting his version of NAFTA and pummeling Joe Biden for supporting the initial, flawed Clinton version. Courting white blue-collar voters in Michigan and other battle ground votes will require having a strong record of fair trade, and only Bernie Sanders brings that to the ticket.

We need to pay close attention to where Joe Biden won on Super Tuesday. He won in the south, a place where no Democrat is expected to win in 2020. We can’t have another election where the Democrat wins the popular vote and we still end up losing to Trump. We need someone like Sanders who can win in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana. These are places where white middle-class voters are likely to stick with Trump if we can’t give them a better choice. Additionally, Sanders voted against Trump’s NAFTA 2.0 creating greater contrast between him and Trump. He can point to some of the shortfalls to Trump’s version of the trade agreement. For those who are not following trade closely, here are a few things that I wrote about Trump’s NAFTA in December when the bill passed the House and Senate.

Donald Trump’s NAFTA 2.0 had support from republicans and corporate democrats like my opponent. I would have voted against Trump's NAFTA deal because it will only exacerbate the climate crisis. I would have stood with these environmental groups: 350.org, Earthjustice, Food and Water Action, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, League of Conservation Voters, Natural Resources Defense Council, Oil Change International, Sierra Club, and Sunrise Movement.

It perpetuates the offshoring of toxic waste and the outsourcing of jobs, creates incentives for more pipelines like the Keystone XL pipeline, and allows big oil companies to challenge environmental protections through a corporate tribunal process known as ISDS.

This trade deal does little to address the climate crisis and fails to even mention the words, “climate change." At least 10 national environmental groups are opposing Trump’s NAFTA 2.0 because the legislation is worse than the original NAFTA with respect to our climate.

The environmental concerns of NAFTA 2.0 are very real. This deal allows corporate polluters to dodge climate and environmental policies in the United States by outsourcing tightly regulated businesses like battery recycling.

The highly controversial Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) process that allows corporations to sue a sovereign government over lost profits due to increased environmental standards remains intact for fossil fuel companies. Unfortunately, this means that oil companies like Shell or Exxon Mobile can sue Mexico in private tribunals if new environmental policies undercut their government contracts for offshore drilling, fracking, oil and gas pipelines, refineries, or other polluting activities.

The Trump administration’s text included a new “rule of origin” that would make it cheaper for oil corporations to export climate-polluting tar sands oil to the U.S. through dangerous oil pipelines like Keystone XL. The text also failed to include a provision that is needed to preserve the U.S.’s autonomy to determine if gas exports to Mexico and Canada are in the public interest. This provision is necessary to fix NAFTA’s automatic gas export guarantee, which has contributed to a five-fold surge in gas exports to Mexico since 2010, fueling increased fracking in the U.S. and an expansion of controversial cross-border gas pipelines.

As the next representative from Illinois’ 11th district I will make sure that we address the climate crisis in every trade deal. In addition to stricter environmental standards, I will also support the inclusion and expansion of human rights, women’s rights and strong, enforceable worker’s rights standards. NAFTA 2.0 makes small strides forward with labor standards. However, while these baby steps need to be recognized, I still have serious questions about how labor standards will be enforced on factory floors. Regardless, NAFTA 2.0 remains damaging to the environment despite these modest gains.

The deep irony here is that in the past, my opponent has used fossil fuel industry talking points and defined climate change as a “global problem," rather than addressing the problems right here at home in the U.S. Specifically, he has singled out other carbon-polluting nations like India and China as a way of dismissing the need for serious climate action by the United States Congress. The best way for the U.S. to influence the climate policies of other nations is through trade agreements like USMCA. Bill Foster cannot talk out of both sides of his mouth by criticizing other nations and then voting for a trade agreement that makes the climate crisis worse.

This trade agreement is far from being a “template” for future trade agreements. It represents a starting place and there is still much work to be done.

If we elect Bernie Sanders for President, in the U.S. House of Representatives I will be fighting hard to change all of our trade agreements to put the environment and human rights first. I am encouraging all of my current and past supporters to vote for fundamental change on March 17th in the Illinois Democratic Primary.

Time To Get To Know Illinois Progressive Rachel Ventura A Little Better

Back in 2009, when union activist and author Jonathan Tasini was running for Senate against Kirsten Gillibrand, I wrote that sometimes I have to pump some political courage into our candidates and incumbents and coax them to support difficult or controversial items on the progressive agenda. Not Tasini, whose politico-spiritual mentor is Paul Wellstone. I wrote that he's the kind of figure who I fully expected to call me and ask me why I'm not working harder to round up more votes for the most difficult progressive positions in Congress. He was determined that Kirsten Gillibrand not march into the office to which she was appointed without facing a progressive challenger committed to seeing it through all the way to the end and not liable to be bullied or bribed out of the race. He's interviewing the best progressive candidates for his podcast-- The Working Life-- and he started last week with Rachel Ventura, the progressive firebrand and Will County board members (and activist) running for the Chicagoland congressional seat (IL-11) held by wealthy conservative New Dem Bill Foster. I asked Jonathan to make a YouTube for DWT readers and that's it up top.

Please give it a listen. It's a good way to get to know a candidate we regularly ask you to help fund a campaign. (Speaking of which... just click on the brand new 2020 Chicagoland thermometer on the right and contribute what you feel inspired to after you hear the conversation.) Rachel decided to run for Congress-- knowing full well how hard it is to primary an entrenched incumbent of your own party-- after she met with Foster in hope of getting him to sign on as a co-sponsor of the Medicare for All bill being advanced by Rep. Pramila Jaypal. After sharing her experience with Foster as a single mother who had to go without health insurance for two years, she realized that Foster was not going to be moved. He promised a follow-up meeting and then the Our Revolution group was told by Foster’s congressional office that they would only be given one meeting per group, per year. So now-- still opposing Medicare-for-All and the Green New Deal-- he has a primary.

Listen to Rachel talk about it on Jonathan's podcast-- and let me know which other candidates you'd like me to recommend that Jonathan have as guests on his show.

Blue America's Newest Endorsed Candidate, Rachel Ventura (IL-11)

Rachel Ventura is the progressive Democrat challenging New Dem, Bill Foster in Illinois’ 11th congressional district. Ventura currently serves on the Will County Board, representing swing district #9. To win her 2018 campaign, she challenged the local Democratic establishment, was outspent 3:1 and still dominated the 5-candidate primary field by running a well-organized grassroots campaign. In the general election, the all-volunteer campaign knocked on over 10,000 doors and beat the Democratic candidate by 11% and the Republican by 8% of the vote with a strong GOTV effort.

At times during her first year on the board she became a controversial voice-- challenging Democratic leadership, but she also has had some early successes that are defining of the kinds of things she will fight for on the floor of the House of Representatives.

When the aquifer that provided water to the Village of Fairmont began drying up, village officials wanted to privatize Fairmont’s water system to a company named Aqua. Ventura stepped in and worked with regional governing bodies to move the Fairmont residents over to the Joliet public water system. Residents of Fairmont, a largely African American community, saved significant amounts of money on their water bills and dodged lead poisoning. Just recently, Aqua was sued by the Illinois Attorney General and the Will County State’s Attorney for failing to treat their water properly, causing elevated levels of lead in University Park’s water system.

Ventura also successfully fought for Will County to become the second county in Illinois to adopt the Greenest Region Compact, a framework to move Will County towards a green future. Recently, she led the battle to move all of the county buildings over to 100% renewable energy, a measure that would have created jobs and set an example for other municipalities to follow.

But if she is being successful at the county level, why jump to Congress so quickly?

This spring, Rachel realized that her ability to work towards meaningful change would have to have to come at the federal level. It began with a meeting with Rep. Bill Foster to get him to sign on as a co-sponsor of the Medicare for All bill being advanced by Rep. Pramila Jaypal. After sharing her experience with Foster as a single mother who had to go without health insurance for two years, she realized that Foster was not going to be moved. He promised a follow-up meeting and then the Our Revolution group was told by Foster’s congressional office that they would only be given one meeting per group, per year.

The group rallied outside of Foster’s office in early June of 2019.

Ventura shared her personal story of her fear in leaving her previous marriage with an abusive husband and losing health insurance in the process.

“If we do not have health care as a right, there are millions of people in relationships, abusive relationships, and they fear leaving,” Ventura said. “And they stay in a horrible situation because they’re too afraid. That is not a government that works for everyone.”

A similar effort in Aurora Illinois was organized by a coalition of progressive and environmental groups (Sierra Club, Progressives of Kane County, Our Revolution and DSA) who met with and rallied outside Foster’s office on June 22, 2019, seeking his support for the Green New Deal. Again, Foster refused to support the sweeping and necessary framework to tackle the climate crisis.

About a month later, on July 20th, she announced her candidacy.




Ventura is an aggressive grassroots campaigner and a little over 30-days into the campaign, she announced having attended 68 events, recruited 150 volunteers and raised money from 93 individual donors. It will take an intense door-to-door effort to reach voters in the suburban district.

Illinois 11th congressional district is one of those partisan gerrymanders that guarantees single-party rule. But this one wasn't created by the GOP; the Illinois legislature is firmly in the hands of the Democratic Party and the Democrats drew the boundaries on IL-11, creating a D+9 district in an area that Republican House speaker Denny Hastert used to call home. West of Chicago, the bulk of the voters live in Will and DuPage counties, with smaller numbers in Kane and Kendall counties. It includes Joliet (Will Co.) in the south and all of Aurora (Kane Co.) and much of Naperville (DuPage Co.) in the north. The district is 79.6% suburban and most of the people there are in blue collar, sales and service jobs. Almost half the population is white and the medium income in $68,154.

After 2 bruising election challenges by union carpenter John Laesch, Hastert was forced to resign or face certain defeat in 2008. (Laesch has remained active in union politics and is now Ventura's campaign manager.) Conservative multimillionaire, Bill Foster beat GOP multimillionaire, crackpot and frequent candidate Jim Oberweis 57 to 43%. Foster self-funded about $2 million into his race and Oberweis put close to $4 million of his own in. Pretty disgusting! The DCCC spent $1,349,399 on Foster's behalf, about the same amount the NRCC spent on Oberweis. The following cycle the voters kicked Foster out and elected Randy Hultgren (R). Then came the new gerrymander and in 2012 Foster ran against Republican Judy Biggert in the re-drawn district and beat her convincingly, after dumping another half million of his own into the race.

Obama won the district both times with healthy margins and Hillary beat Trump 58.9% to 35.4%. It's what you call a safe blue district. And not just safe, progressive. When given a chance to choose between Bernie and Hillary in the 2016 primary, IL-11 voters chose Bernie 52.3% to 47.7%. Foster joined the Wall Street-oriented New Dem caucus and earned an "F" from ProgressivePunch for his corporate-oriented voting record. After all these years in Congress his only two signature bills were naming post offices and he's probably best known for joining the Republicans and 32 other corrupt conservative Dems to gut Dodd Frank's consumer protections. He's considerably to the right of his own constituents. Foster has refused to co-sponsor Pramila Jayapal's Medicare-For-All bill, refused to co-sponsor AOC's Green New Deal resolution, refused to co-sponsor Lloyd Doggett's bill to lower the price of drugs... and he opposes impeachment:

So... the opposite of Blue America's newest endorsee, Rachel Ventura, a progressive member of the Will County Board who has challenged Foster to debate all the issues that are most pressing and most important to the people in the district, where he doesn't even seem to live, splitting his time between DC and New York City.

In framing the primary for Will County voters recently, Rachel said that she recognizes the national significance of the race as the divide spreads wider between the progressive Democrats and the New Dem Coalition and their so-called "Problem Solvers" allies, two conservative caucuses that Foster belongs to. "We are living through a tumultuous period of upheaval and crisis and I feel like our current representative is in a state of stasis," she said. "It is just too much inaction on major issues like climate change, meaningful health care reform, wealth inequality, and campaign finance reforms. We the people deserve meaningful actions to address the crisis facing our generation and the next."

If you're with us about putting forward the kind of progressive agenda that both Bernie and Elizabeth are campaigning on, it is crucial we get rid of more dead wood from Congress like Bill Foster and replace them with Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Democrats from the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party-- like Rachel Ventura. Foster has accomplished nothing in Congress and it's hard to understand why he even wants to stay there. He opposes the tide of history and his time is up. Please consider contributing to Rachel's grassroots campaign by clicking on the Blue America 2020 congressional primary thermometer on the right and contributing what you can. There are already too many members of Congress from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. If you want to see action on Climate Change, the Green New Deal, banning the sale of assault weapons, a fairer tax system that requires the richest Americans to pair their fair share, we all need to step up and do what we can to replace slugs like Foster with can-do progressives like Rachel Ventura.

Illinois’ 11th Congressional District-- Crossroads Of America, And The Ground Zero Fight For The Green New Deal.

Rachel Ventura plants a Green New Deal sign in East Aurora

-by Rachel Ventura
Candidate
IL-11

I have worn many hats in my life. As a 38-year old single mother of two beautiful and gifted twin girls, I have traveled America and the world when I was a military spouse. I have worked as an actuary for both a health and a life insurance company and then changed jobs purposely because the industry didn’t mesh with my moral compass. I became a naturalist, and have worked as a substitute teacher and pet nurse. Today, I work as the business director for Legendary Games and serve as a representative to the residents of District 9 on the Will County Board. I am running for U.S. Congress because the residents of Illinois’ 11th district deserve a stronger voice. The world needs environmental leaders to step up and share a bigger vision for a Green New Deal.

Illinois’ 11th congressional district is a microcosm of the United States, where urban sprawl and rural strongholds compete for land. The latest trend of exploiting the land and workers demonstrates how easily corporate expansion is winning out and tearing up our precious farmland.

Soil is one of our best resources in Illinois, and Will County has some of the best soil in the world for growing crops; currently ranked number 3, worldwide. When we are not losing soil due to erosion by the Mississippi River or field flooding, we are quickly covering it up with concrete parking lots and sprawling warehouses. Never mind that the native tallgrassprairie here in Illinois can sequester more carbon than trees.

In 2002, CenterPoint Intermodal developed in Joliet, IL. Joliet/Elwood is the largest warehousing and distribution center in the world; not just the United States, but the world. Lured by the Chicagoland consumer marketplace and enabled by the intersections of several key highways (I-55, I-80 and Rt. 53), and railways (BNSF and Union Pacific), the warehousing district seemingly popped up overnight.

Over 300 warehouses call Will County home. A region once known for its soybeans and cornfields is now "boxed up with gray facilities, some as large as a million square feet. From the sky it looks like an enormous, horizontal game of Tetris." Companies like Amazon, IKEA, Walmart, Target, Home Depot, and Samsung have taken up residence at Joliet’s largest inland port in the America. Will’s County’s Community Friendly Freight Mobility Study showed in 2017 that “More freight was shipped through Will County than inbound, outbound, and intra-county freight movements combined, illustrating the role Will County plays in regional and national freight movement.” In fact, 63% of all shipped goods travel through Will County, totaling 380 million tons valued at over $623 billion dollars of freight which equates to 3.5 percent of U.S. Gross Domestic Product ($17.9 trillion).

Economic Impact-- The Struggle for Low Income Families:

​Sixty percent of Will County’s warehouse workers make $9-$15 an hour. The warehouses create jobs, but they are not living wage jobs. According to the Will’s County’s Community Friendly Freight Mobility Study, “the greatest job growth by percentage is projected to occur in long-distance trucking-- But, the greatest increase in the number of jobs is projected to occur in the warehousing and storage occupation, which already comprises the largest occupation in the Transportation Distribution and Logistics (TDL) industry in Will County. By 2026, there may be an additional 3,236 warehouse and storage jobs added in this sector-- increasing 55 percent from 5,900 in 2016 to 9,136 in 2026.” But it isn’t the warehouse expansion and loss of soil alone that is intrusive. The county is home to 99 temp agencies-- one of the highest concentrations of staffing agencies in the country. According to Warehouse Workers for Justice (WWJ) some local staffing agencies resort to wage theft, paying piece rates, skimping on hours, or having workers’ pay for their own drug tests.

Warehouses use temporary workers as a means of breaking labor laws and driving down labor costs. I will never forget hearing my high school friend and union organizer, Roberto Clack reading the results of a worker survey during his presentation to the Will County Board, “74% of workers reported illegal wage theft, 10% reported having access to paid sick days and 3% had access to paid vacation days. Zero percentage of workers surveyed said they preferred temporary work.” Clack said that while many workers wanted full-time employment, many of them worked as long as three years for the same temp agency. I ask, wouldn’t our community be stronger if workers were paid a living wage? Warehouse workers go on strike, Sept. 2012.

Workers have organized and fought back. In September 2012, workers from the Wal-Mart distribution center went on strike, generating an enormous amount of community support-- over 600 people temporarily shut down the Elwood Warehouse as the retail giant was ramping up for their Black Friday sales push. In 2018, the city of Joliet denied for the first time a new temp agency opening its doors.

The strike wasn’t enough to shut down Black Friday, but it inspired workers to keep fighting. The struggle for better working conditions has been ongoing and the movement is growing. Organizers realized that in addition to the higher levels of poverty that the warehouses caused, that there was a significant environmental impact. A partnership with Sierra Club and other environmental groups shed light on the environmental damage that goes far beyond the destruction of carbon sequestering prairie grass. In 2017, the Sierra Club asked Will County to place a moratorium on warehouse building until the infrastructure could support it. The Republican controlled board at that time refused to call for the vote on a moratorium.

Environmental Impact:

While WWJ was organizing workers in Elwood, IL, Amazon Tech workers in Seattle started organizing internally to make Amazon more environmentally transparent. The question was, “what is the carbon cost of Amazon Prime’s two day shipping?” Two female Amazon tech workers paired up with Seattle 350 and started digging into the online retail giant’s carbon footprint. Their research exposed a chilling fact. Exhaust from Amazon trucks, cars and planes are equivalent to 4.7 coal plants running year-round.

With success comes competition. CenterPoint attracted a competitor in 2018 anxious to build a 2,200 acres development. This Kansas City-based industrial warehouse developer, Northpoint Development, has been working on a plan to usurp the prime farmland in unincorporated Jackson Township in Will County and replace it with industrial warehousing distribution centers.

This proposed expansion would add 53,000 more trucks to the existing roadways traversing through the county. Amazon wants to build 30 more warehouses in Elwood-- 30 million more square feet of storage space. The proposed 2,200 acre expansion would further encroach on the largest tallgrass prairie in the United States, Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie.

Ventura attends NorthPoint hearings

The exhaust-spewing trucks create another problem for the 2,500 residents of Elwood. Years of truck traffic has destroyed the local roads and bridges. Road construction needs paired with tax abatements to draw warehouse employers to the region have left the Village of Elwood $38 Million in debt.

Finally, a village buried in debt and tired of the non-stop truck traffic had the audacity to say, “no.” I had recently returned to my hometown of Joliet and entered the political arena as a candidate who had just run for Joliet City Council. I heard about a new warehouse expansion in Elwood and did some research and became active in a group called, ”Just Say No To NorthPoint”. More truck exhaust, more concrete, more class warfare, fewer economic opportunities and less prairie grass. It seemed like a raw deal. I joined their cause even though NorthPoint was nowhere near my district on the county board.

​The People’s climate march in September of 2018 drew hundreds to the region to focus the attention on the environmental impact of the NorthPoint expansion. Ultimately, after 16 hours of public comment and over 2000 concerned citizens, the village of Elwood voted “no” and NorthPoint’sexpansion was denied, for the time being.

People's Climate March-- Rise for Climate, Jobs & Justice

I wish the Environmental Degradation Stopped with Warehouses-- It Doesn’t:

Will County is effectively the "dumping grounds" for Chicago's dirty energy industry and garbage. Will County is home to two coal plants, two refineries and one nuclear power plant. We store the things America buys and we expose ourselves to higher level toxins so we can power the region and fuel transportation needs.

The air quality in the district ranks some of the worst in the country for Carbon Monoxide, Nitrogen Oxides, PM 2.5 emissions, PM-10 emissions, Sulfur Dioxide, Volatile Organic Compound emissions. The air quality index is considered moderate at an average of 66 which carries a health warning of “unusually sensitive people should consider reducing prolonged or heavy exertion.”

It didn’t take long to draw the conclusion that the 11th congressional district was ripe for a conversation about the Green New Deal. The current congressman, Bill Foster, touts himself as a businessman and scientist, but the truth is, he has done very little to address the looming climate crisis. Several friends met with Representative Foster, and he issued his standard, “no, it’s too expensive and too big” excuse.

I disagree. We need a big, sweeping movement across the United States that empowers and challenges Americans to engage in the cause of transforming our economy and changing the course of history to transition our energy system away from fossil fuels. The Green New Deal is massive in scope and spending, but we have the money and we have done this before. In the same way that Americans pulled together to address the crisis of the Great Depression and the Second World War, I believe that we will pull together once again. The climate crisis is our Great Depression. It is our WWII. It is our responsibility and challenge to overcome. We will overcome. We will succeed! We will thrive! To do this though, we need strong leaders and bold solutions. That is why I’m running for Congress in the 11th congressional district. We launched our campaign on July 20th 2019, with the belief that we could give a stronger voice to those who are struggling to be heard in a system that allows billionaires and Super PACs to drown out the voices of the rest of us with their unlimited campaign contributions. We need to change the current system that allows the wealthy and powerful to exploit other human beings while destroying our environment.

The Green New Deal seeks to change the system at its very foundation by restoring democracy and addressing income inequality. We cannot tackle the climate crisis by enabling the same people who created the mess, attempt to fix the mess with half-baked carbon capture cons. The fossil fuel industry is doing everything in its power to delay fundamental change, buy off lawmakers, develop slick greenwashed marketing campaigns, and attempting to utilize the crisis they created to justify more bailouts and subsidies.

We need to stand firm and demand a comprehensive solution that seeks to employ the low-wage warehouse workers in a new energy economy, making homes energy efficient, installing solar panels, building an efficient high-speed rail system, and developing the infrastructure necessary to support electric vehicles. We can do this! We’re all in this together.