Ensuring our working families have jobs with good benefits and pay means focusing job growth on our region’s economic engines, and making sure every Arizonan has access to them. We need to make sure Arizonans can get the tools and skills they need to participate fully in today’s economy, which means robust workforce development and apprenticeship programs, access to affordable childcare, making sure women receive equal pay for equal work, allowing workers to be confident that their retirement will be secure even as they change jobs, and true tax reform that makes the very wealthy pay their fair share with tax cuts for middle and working classes as well as small businesses.
From senior care to healthcare, Arizona seniors need access to the treatment and services they both deserve and have earned. We must protect Social Security and Medicare from attacks from the MAGA right, so they’re solvent for tomorrow. We must continue to work to make prescription drugs more affordable, lower costs for all health care for seniors, and make sure these programs accurately reflect our population’s changing needs.
We must prioritize our veterans and military families. This means honoring our commitments to active duty military as they transition out of service, so that they have access to the best healthcare; community access to quality mental health and suicide prevention, childcare, financial support programs; and more robust programs to place veterans and their families into jobs and careers.
Arizona’s future depends on us getting water policy right, and ensuring our communities have just and fair access to it. Solving Arizona’s water challenges amidst a historic, regional drought requires commitment from every level of government and collaboration between a full range of communities and organizations, including federal, state, tribal, and academic stakeholders. Our policies must be data-driven and non-partisan.
Strong public education is key to the success of Arizona’s economy, a cornerstone of our democracy and necessary to securing our nation’s future. We need to raise teacher pay to retain and attract quality educators. We must expand CTE (career and technical education) programs, including making community college programs cost-free whenever possible. prioritize making all post-secondary education more affordable, including a targeted loan forgiveness program so students don’t spend their lives burdened by debt.
Everyone should have the freedom and power to make decisions about their reproductive health without interference from the government. We know that women's circumstances are different, every pregnancy is unique, and decisions about abortion and birth control should be made by women and their doctors. These are extremely personal decisions that should be respected and valued.
The lessons we have learned from the COVID-19 pandemic have shown us how we need to be prepared for the next pandemic. We need to be working to speed up the timeline to rapidly produce next generation diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines to counter emerging diseases. Working across the government and with our global partners on building a global disease surveillance system that will give us early warning on emerging disease threats so that we mitigate the impact and protect our population.
The Southern Border is a National Crisis that cannot be fixed with a wall. It can be solved with comprehensive legislation that will stop the illegal importation of dangerous drugs like Fentanyl that are killing our youth. At the same time, reward immigrants who want to come to the U.S. legally. There also needs to be increased funding for Border Patrol to hire adequate staff to support the influx. Stronger relationships between the Department of Defense and Homeland Security for training, acquisition of technology, and security. The recent bipartisan piece of proposed legislation is a step in the right direction towards comprehensive immigration reform.
