Democratic nominee for Florida's 1st Congressional District
ISSUES
"When a storm rolls in, we need someone in charge who knows how to handle a crisis. Whether that storm is a hurricane, a pandemic, or a housing market collapse, I will make sound policy decisions based on facts, science, and input from YOU."
ISSUES
LEADERSHIP
Environment
As a scientist who has spent more than a decade studying the Earth, its systems, and the friction between the human and natural worlds, the environment will be one of my focus areas.
Environmental issues encompass a wide range of issues, from addressing climate change and comprehensive infrastructure funding, to localized problems like protecting timber forests from the Southern pine beetle and emergency planning and response.
Florida's beaches should be envied by the world for their beauty. Protecting those beaches - whether from shoreline erosion, sea level rise, rapid development, or major hurricanes - should be a top priority.
More than just beaches comprise Florida's First, however, and the unique environmental challenges to forestry, land management, and climate change can define economics in the region.
We need environmental policies driven by science, not political posturing or pandering. Long-term sustainability of natural resources could have a monumental impact on the vitality of Florida's ecosystem, both for tourism and for economics.
Transparency and Accountability
I became a whistleblower and reluctant public figure for refusing to mislead Florida's people with bad data in support of a political plan not grounded by the science.
Since then, I've taken the fight for government accountability and transparency personally.
I've been invited as the keynote speaker to half-a-dozen major academic conferences about the ethics of data in a crisis, been honored with titles like Whistleblower of the Year, Elemental's 50 Experts to Trust in a Pandemic, Fortune's 40 Under 40 for Healthcare, Forbes' Tech Person of the Year, and have been awarded the Samuel Lawrence Prize, and more.
Florida deserves representatives who are honest and care about the people. Being an advocate for accountability and transparency within government is the first step in trusting your represenatatives.
Veterans
Florida’s 1st has the highest percentage of veterans of any Congressional district in the United States.
Nearly one-fifth of every adult in the district served in the United States military, and Eglin Airforce Base employs nearly 15,000 civilian and military personnel today.
Though Eglin today boasts aggressive environmental protection policies, in previous decades Eglin tested a range of chemical weapons, including Agent Orange, that caused disease to military and civilian personnel.
I want to make it easier for veterans exposed to toxic substances to access Veterans Affairs benefits.
And I'm going to see to it that our region gets a full-service VA hospital for current and former military to receive emergency, long-term and in-patient care.
Science and Research
Federal restrictions on funding for a range of scientific issues, from disease control to medicine, should be repealed. The government has a vested interest in developing the most advanced science in the world, and our place as a leader in scientific discovery and ingenuity in the world must be restored.
Decisions about policies with a wide-range of potential impacts should be made only when the best available information, data and research shows the plan to be in the best interest of the people.
No more gambling or bad bets with your income, safety or lives.
Education
While communities and states carry most of the burden in funding schools, the feds could do more to ensure every child has access to a quality education from pre-K through graduate school. Universal Pre-K would relieve working parents from a statewide average of $6,647 per year in childcare costs alone.
While rich kids coast through college with D's and $0 in debt, working-class kids depend on a mix of scholarships and student loans, often requiring a minimum GPA and putting students in debt for decades with interest rates exceeding 6%. Our nation's best and brightest carry a collective debt of $1.57 TRILLION.
Capping interest rates to reflect our nation's priorities of furthering scientific and medical discovery through advanced study would allow brilliant students to embrace their gifts without sacrificing 10% or more of their income every month for 25 years.
Access to YOUR Representative
Unlike some of Florida's current representatives, you won't find me in Las Vegas on a traitor tour of the country for my own self-promotion. I will be available to you as often as possible, including during my campaign. You can schedule a one-on-one with me by submitting your information through the survey on my home page. We can chat over the phone, through email, zoom, or in-person.
Voting Rights & Voter Registration
If you can't vote, then you can't participate in our democracy. The right to vote is one of the most sacred and fundamental pieces of a government that functions for the people.
Any laws that might impact a person's access or right to vote should be heavily scrutinized as appropriate. Without a vote, we lose our voice in our democracy.
To check your voter registration status, to update your voter information, or to register to vote, click here.
Media Accountability
The United States makes it too hard to hold the media accountable when they publish fake news and outright lies. Media should serve as the Fourth Estate - keeping government accountable, not working as an extension of government offices.
I want to make it easier to hold media who publish defamatory, libelous, slanderous and grossly negligent articles about private citizens and limited public figures accountable. Unless you happen to have millions of d0llars lying around, it's nearly impossible to hold fake-news media accountable for the damage they cause.
This issue has personally impacted my life in the last year, and I know how helpless an ordinary person can feel when the mainstream media defames and slanders the people.
Taxes
In the United States, 90% of people earn less than $90,000 per year. The median income in the United States is $27,000 per year - meaning half of all people in America earn less than that amount.
Yet, those in the middle and lower classes carry the heaviest tax burden. Here in Florida, we enjoy not paying state personal income taxes, relying on the businesses and industries in the state to pay their fair share of the tax burden instead. We should apply that policy nationally, where those considered lower class pay 0% personal income tax, those in the middle class pay just 10% (2%-14% lower than the Trump tax rate), and those in the top 10% pay higher rates that increase with income.
A strong economy needs a strong middle class. Before the Reagan era, when America’s middle class was strongest, the richest Americans paid tax rates as high as 94% on income over $2.5 million. Trump dropped the tax rate on American’s wealthiest few while raising it for everyone else.
Check out this tool from the Wall Street Journal that tells you what percent you are based on your income in the USA, and this website that details how tax rates have changed under former President Trump.