The political issue of our time is top versus bottom, not left versus right.

The first step toward reclaiming our democracy from an excruciatingly top-heavy ruling class is simple: end legalized bribery. That requires overturning Citizens United and passing a constitutional amendment to ban billionaire election-buying, so that power rests with voters rather than hedge fund donors.

The more difficult but necessary task is to restore fairness to our capitalist economy by embedding the values of equality and shared responsibility into how our society treats extreme wealth. We should discourage the hoarding of vast fortunes and instead create policies, incentives, and cultural expectations that ensure profits generated through American innovation and labor are reinvested into the communities that made that success possible. A higher billionaire tax is a good start, as is a renewed push to root out corruption.

But change will also require a moral and ethical shift in how we frame the balance between wealth gained in our country and the responsibility expected of those who were able to gain it: extreme wealth should not remain idle or hidden but should serve the public good. The philanthropic models established by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates demonstrate how accumulated wealth can be directed toward society’s needs, yet such responsibility should not be left solely to voluntary charity. It should be understood as a principle of democratic life.

Society itself has a role to play in reinforcing these norms. In some Nordic countries, high levels of trust and a cultural ethos against conspicuous accumulation support redistributive policies and discourage unchecked wealth concentration. This combination of policy and social pressure has helped sustain broad equality and civic responsibility. The cultural understanding that great success brings a duty to contribute can strengthen our democracy as much as any statute.

We should develop and promote this understanding, develop a language to talk about the responsibility to society of those who do well, and then move to codify it.

Capitalism, in the end, is not the enemy. Greed is. Greed has always been the enemy. The time has come to ensure that wealth serves the many rather than the few and we need to embed this principle in the very heart of our national discourse and very heart of our view of what it means to be an American.

A society that cannot guarantee food and shelter is a society in decline. Yet even as families in Connecticut struggle with skyrocketing rents and empty cupboards, Congress has turned its back. The so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” stripped away funds for food pantries at the very moment they were needed most. In our district, this means parents skipping meals so children can eat, seniors choosing between groceries and medication, and food pantries stretched to the breaking point. This is not just bad policy, it is a catastrophe.

On housing, the crisis is just as clear. In New Haven, Wallingford, and towns across our district, slumlords hide behind opaque corporate structures to prey on poor people and people of color. They buy up homes through shell companies, neglect basic repairs, jack up rents, and exploit tenants who lack the resources to fight back. This is profiteering off poverty, and it has gone unchecked for too long.

I will fight for a Housing and Food Security Guarantee:

• Restore and expand federal funds for food pantries and community nutrition programs, so no child or senior in Connecticut ever goes hungry.
• Direct Department of Justice litigation against slumlords who exploit tenants through fraudulent corporate structures and systemic neglect, especially in communities of color.
• Block Wall Street and private equity from bulk-buying homes in our district.
• Expand affordable housing construction and tenant protections, so working families have safe and stable homes.

Food and housing are the foundation of dignity. If billionaires and corporations can receive billions in subsidies, then families in New Haven, Ansonia, Seymour, Milford, and beyond should never wonder if they will eat or have a roof over their heads. Security for the people comes first.

Social Security is a sacred promise, built by the labor of generations, and it must never be broken. The fix is simple: lift the payroll tax cap so the wealthy pay their fair share. That change alone will make the system solvent for decades, guarantee cost-of-living increases, and protect every worker’s right to retire in dignity. No politician should ever be allowed to cut or privatize Social Security.

But protecting the old promise is not enough. We must also build a new promise for younger generations. For decades, the economy has been tilted toward billionaires while families are asked to raise children, buy homes, and pay for care with stagnant wages. It is no wonder that so many young Americans doubt they will ever see a secure retirement or even a fair shot at stability.

That is why I support a Universal Basic Income for young families, giving parents the breathing room they need to raise children without the crushing anxiety of poverty. And it is why I will fight for an AI dividend: if automation and artificial intelligence are going to multiply productivity and profits, then the benefits must be shared with the people, not hoarded by Silicon Valley billionaires.

The choice is simple. We can allow billionaires to take the future, or we can make sure every generation, from today’s retirees to tomorrow’s families, has the security, support, and opportunity they deserve. Connecticut families know what real security means: it is a check that arrives on time, childcare you can afford, and the promise that work will be rewarded with dignity.

Profit-driven prison companies should not exist. The profit motive and the policy and moral justifications for incarceration are not compatible.

I have worked inside too many private prisons that have been turned into civil detainee holding facilities, or that have been the site of horrid abuses of people.

We shouldn’t use public markets to gamble on the fate of human bodies.

For decades, America has sent its young men and women to fight wars that had little to do with our security and everything to do with propping up broken policies and billionaire interests. From Vietnam to Iraq to Afghanistan, soldiers were told they were defending freedom, while in reality they were defending a status quo that treats working-class kids as expendable.

And it has not stopped. Even today, our military is being quietly deployed into foreign conflicts under new names and euphemisms. In Haiti, U.S. soldiers are sent in as “security” forces or so-called “mercenary” troops. Seemingly illegal bombings of Venezuelan and Colombian vessels are being carried out by a Navy that has not yet explained the basis of its attacks to Congress. The President talks of sending CIA agents onto Venezuelan soil. In Washington, leaders talk openly about invading Mexico to fight cartels.

These are not defensive missions. They are the seeds of new wars that will once again send American sons and daughters into harm’s way for goals that have nothing to do with our freedom at home.

I believe in a simple principle: no new wars abroad and accountability for all warlike actions carried out in America’s name. American troops should never be used as pawns in proxy wars, regime-change schemes, or occupations that enrich contractors and weaken our democracy. Their mission should be clear and limited: defend the United States and its people.

As your representative, I will fight to:

• Block any new U.S. military interventions in foreign countries without explicit Congressional approval.
• End the abuse of authorizations for the use of military force (AUMFs) that keep wars on autopilot for decades.
• Prohibit the deployment of U.S. soldiers under euphemisms like “advisors” or “security contractors” when in reality they are being used as combat forces.
• Prioritize diplomacy, economic stability, and humanitarian assistance over military solutions in our foreign policy.
• Try for war crimes any American officials who do not follow international law.

No parent in Connecticut should fear that their child will be sent to fight in another needless war. And no soldier should be told their sacrifice is required when what is really being defended are the profits of defense contractors and the pride of career politicians.

International law, particularly the 1948 Genocide Convention, defines genocide as any act committed “with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” This definition is central to the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court, and has been upheld by numerous international tribunals. In its 2007 Bosnia v. Serbia ruling, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) affirmed that the intent to destroy even a “substantial part” of a group meets this threshold.

Recent events highlight the urgency of this issue. In its January 2024 provisional ruling in South Africa v. Israel, the ICJ found it “plausible” that Israel has committed acts of genocide against Palestinians and ordered immediate preventative measures. Similarly, the attack on Israel by Hamas in October 2023 may also constitute genocide, crimes against humanity, or another basis of prosecution enshrined by the Rome Statute. Beyond these specific cases, the last two years have seen numerous actions that could be prosecuted as war crimes, crimes against humanity, or crimes of aggression under international law by both the Israeli government and by Hamas forces. The announced ceasefire of October 2025 (which has, at best, proved tenuous) does not absolve any party of accountability for their actions.

The United States has a clear legal and moral duty to prevent genocide, to avoid complicity in it, and to ensure that those responsible for international crimes are prosecuted once a conflict ends. Our foreign policy must reflect these obligations.

Therefore, I will fight to:

• Vote to suspend U.S. military aid to Israel until those plausibly accused of international law violations are held accountable, either by international courts or through Israel’s own legal system.
• Vote to continue supporting a future free of Hamas or other militarized Palestinian groups.
• Vote to condition all foreign assistance on strict compliance with international law.
• Vote to recognize a Palestinian State and to return all lands lost in the West Bank and Gaza to Palestinians and/or advocate for a single state that provides rights of citizenship to Palestinians and Israelis.
• Ensure U.S. policy actively supports the prosecution of any acts that violated International Law during the past two years of conflict.

Bottom line, Connecticut families should not see their tax dollars used to enable atrocities abroad.

This is not a position I take lightly. As the descendant of Holocaust survivors—my Serbian and Jewish family suffered immense losses in the Jasenovac concentration camp—I am fully committed to helping Israel reclaim its place among peaceful and morally upright nations. This is a status that Israel has, for the moment, forfeited, risking disaster not only for the state itself but for Jewish communities worldwide.

Even as I write this, the actions of Netanyahu’s extremist government are actively jeopardizing Israeli and Jewish safety across the entire world by quickly warping opinion within a media landscape that is ripe for the mass radicalization of people who are tied to their media screens. Here in the United States, we are witnessing perhaps the most disturbing rise of antisemitism seen anywhere in the world, with previously condemned antisemitic tropes now amplified by influential figures across the political spectrum.

On the right, some mainstream media figures now attempt to rehabilitate Hitler and Stalin and to place blame on Jewish communities for having “dual loyalty”. This has become a profitable and mainstream niche of content, elevated by media giants like Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, Candace Owens, and other podcasters and media personalities that are at the top of streaming charts on YouTube and other platforms. On the left, legitimate critiques of colonial Zionism are too often used as a cover for antisemitism. The result is a political horseshoe where both extremes meet in a shared hatred or growing “distrust” of Jews, which is why previously diametrically opposed figures like Owens and Hasan Piker, to name just one example, now appear on the same algorithmic feeds.

This confluence of antisemitic tropes is possible due to complex factors, but the main driver is obvious to see. The future of Jewish people everywhere is tied to the peace, security, and moral legitimacy of Israel. However, a state that relies on permanent occupation, endless war, and systematic violations of international law cannot sustain these essential qualities. To protect Israel from a future of isolation and collapse, we must demand accountability now for the excesses of its most radical government in history. It is the only plausible way forward if Israel is to have a future.

By conditioning aid on the pursuit of post-conflict justice, we strengthen the prospects for a just and lasting peace, safeguarding Israel’s right to exist as a secure and democratic state.

We have watched in stunned silence for too long as political leaders, funded by billionaires and protected by entrenched party machinery, have undermined democracy and normalized authoritarian behavior.

A group of people is even now busy trying to normalize the use of the machinery of government to intimidate opponents, strip rights away, enable violence, and funnel public money into the hands of corporate backers.

We cannot stop this for the time being. But in the future, just like the original sin of slavery made it impossible for the U.S. to move forward without a resolution to the question of whether all people are truly born equal, so we will only be able to move forward to a future America if we are able to confront with clear eyes the unpunished insurrectionist fantasies that have given rise to our current moment.

After World War II, the Nuremberg Trials set a precedent: when leaders abuse their power and commit crimes against humanity, they must answer for them before the world. Today, the same principle must apply in America, as concerns crimes of corruption and of the abuse of power. No official should be allowed to hide behind office, party, or seniority when they violate the Constitution or enable atrocities at home or abroad.

I will lean on my background as an immigration and civil rights lawyer to fight for a modern system of accountability that investigates and prosecutes political leaders who engage in authoritarian overreach, violate international law, or abuse their office to harm citizens. That means strengthening the independence of the Department of Justice, enforcing the Constitution’s ban on insurrectionists holding office, and supporting international mechanisms like the International Criminal Court when American officials enable war crimes and genocide abroad.

Without accountability, authoritarianism festers. With it, we can begin to rebuild trust in our institutions and restore the principle that in America, no one—not billionaires, not generals, not presidents, and not members of Congress—is above the law.

The Long Island Sound is the beating heart of our district. It shapes our culture, sustains our fishing communities, powers our ports, and defines our way of life.

Yet it has been decades since we undertook the federal dredging projects needed to keep our harbors viable. With the exception of periodic maintenance dredging, there has been no modification to the navigation channel at New Haven Harbor since 1950, when the existing 35-foot channel was completed. In the decades since, sediment has steadily built up at a rate of nearly 88,000 cubic yards each year, forcing repeated but insufficient maintenance dredging. The last major effort in 2013–2014 removed more than 830,000 cubic yards, yet shoaling has already returned.

This is not an abstract problem. Vessels entering New Haven today must often wait for favorable tides or offload cargo offshore in order to clear the 35-foot channel depth. Harbor pilots have long noted that there is little margin for error navigating the channel’s bend between the breakwaters. These limitations put our state’s largest port—and the jobs it sustains—in a dangerous position if we do not secure decisive federal help.

But dredging and infrastructure are not just about shipping lanes—they are the foundation for a vision of a harbor and coastline that can power a new era of growth. Projects like Fair Haven’s Oyster Harbor Village, which combines housing, retail, and new public access to the Quinnipiac River, show how waterfront redevelopment can transform old industrial spaces into places of recreation, tourism, and community. With federal support for dredging and coastal infrastructure, we can multiply those opportunities across our shoreline, turning working harbors into engines of commerce and magnets for visitors.

As your representative, I will be completely focused on these projects. Rebuilding the Sound is about more than commerce—it is about protecting a way of life for generations and ensuring that Connecticut leads in building a resilient, climate-ready maritime economy.

Small business is being crushed by inflation, tariffs, and the tax advantages given to corporations and multi-national companies.

We should provide small businesses support, with tax reductions and hiring incentive programs that pay for workforce training and retention. We should bring back fair and easy lending. We should also make this process fully digitized and free of red tape.

At the same time, the upper-middle class families, rich families, and wealthy dynasties in this state benefit from the highest taxes in the country, while our poor- and middle-class families see very little return for their tax burden. We should lower taxes on 90% of people in our state and in the United States as a whole. And we should make sure that the 10% who are reaping the majority of the benefits of the new “modern” economy pay a higher share.

The strength of American democracy has always depended on strong unions and independent institutions that protect workers from unchecked corporate power. Over the last several decades those protections have been eroded, leaving wages stagnant, workplaces unsafe, and ordinary people increasingly powerless in the face of billionaire influence.

Passing the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act is the first step toward reversing that decline. The PRO Act would guarantee workers the freedom to organize without intimidation, close loopholes that allow misclassification, and restore collective bargaining as a force for middle-class prosperity.

At the same time, Congress must reaffirm the independence of regulatory agencies. In 1935 the Supreme Court ruled in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States that presidents could not remove members of independent agencies at will, precisely so that bodies like the Federal Trade Commission or the National Labor Relations Board could carry out their missions without political interference. More recently, federal courts have questioned the constitutionality of the NLRB’s structure, threatening to paralyze its enforcement powers and put millions of workers’ rights in jeopardy.

Without congressional action, the independence of agencies charged with upholding fair labor standards will remain vulnerable.

Codifying Humphrey’s Executor into law would settle this question and protect regulators from becoming tools of partisan politics. By enshrining the good-cause removal standard in statute, Congress would ensure that independent agencies answer to the people and to the law, not to the political whims of any administration. This is not an abstract legal fight but a practical safeguard for the integrity of democratic governance and for the rights of working people who depend on impartial enforcement of labor law.

Restoring unions and protecting the independence of agencies like the NLRB are two sides of the same struggle. Both are necessary to rebalance power in our economy and our politics. A government that defends workers’ ability to organize and shields regulators from interference is a government that serves the people. Passing the PRO Act, codifying Humphrey’s Executor, and rebuilding unions are essential steps toward a fairer, more democratic America.

Connecticut’s defense industry has long anchored our economy.

Sikorsky, in Stratford, has received billions in taxpayer contracts, touted as investments in Connecticut jobs. Yet they still prepare to lay off hundreds of workers.

That is not acceptable. If corporations take public money, they must be held accountable: protect jobs, reinvest in the Valley, and strengthen the district’s industrial base instead of abandoning it. I will make sure defense dollars actually serve the people of Connecticut, not just corporate shareholders.

At the same time, our biggest contracting companies are a lifeline for our state. We should look for ways to expand what they do. Connecticut could be a leader in manufacturing drones and drone components, as just one example.

Finding where our existing companies can be entrepreneurial, and finding ways that Congress can lower the risk of innovation, will create more jobs for our state, and strengthen our hand in the years of change to come.

Connecticut farmers should not live in fear of corporate overlords who dictate how they grow, what they grow, and how much they earn. For decades, agribusiness monopolies like Monsanto have trapped family farmers in a cycle of dependence, through seed patents, supply contracts, and market control that leave local growers with no bargaining power. At the same time, billionaires and industrial giants have collected massive subsidies, while small and mid-sized farms across the Valley, the shoreline, and inland Connecticut have been left behind.

The Farmer Freedom and Farm Security Act will change that. It will free farmers from corporate domination, restore fairness to the market, and guarantee that food grown in Connecticut serves the people of Connecticut.

My plan includes:

• End monopoly control in agriculture: Break up corporations like Monsanto and the agribusiness cartels that use patents and contracts to trap farmers. Enforce antitrust laws so farmers can plant and sell on fair terms.
• Guarantee food security: Restore funding for food pantries cut by Congress’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” and redirect subsidies from industrial agribusiness to family farms, farmers markets, and food co-ops in our district.
• Protect family farms from climate disasters: Invest in federal insurance, emergency relief, and soil and water conservation programs so that floods, hurricanes, or extreme weather do not wipe out livelihoods.
• Build a Connecticut Food Guarantee: Support community-supported agriculture and direct farm-to-school and farm-to-hospital programs, so families can access fresh, affordable food while supporting local farms.
• Fair treatment for farmworkers: Guarantee fair wages, legal protections, and safe conditions for farmworkers, many of whom are immigrants who form the backbone of Connecticut agriculture.

Farmers should be free to grow without corporate shackles, and families should never go hungry in the shadow of empty fields. This act is about dignity for farmers, security for families, and independence from corporate monopolies that have had their way for too long.

For decades, our country has failed to create a coherent and humane immigration system. Administrations of both parties have allowed a cycle of neglect and crisis to persist, leading to a system that is broken for everyone: for American communities, for our economy, and for immigrants themselves. This reactive approach—turning a blind eye to irregular migration, followed by drastic enforcement measures—has brought our politics to a boil, strained our institutions, and created a radicalized enforcement environment that is both ineffective and immoral.

Instead, we should guarantee permanent work authorization for long-term residents and end the 3/10-year bars that discourage those who come to work in the U.S. to then leave. We should build out and expand the seasonal work programs, both H-2A and H-2B. We should create and encourage lawful departure-and-return pathways that restore mobility and dignity. By implementing these changes, we can replace an inefficient deportation machine with a fair, orderly system that respects both U.S. labor and immigrant families.

The accountability for this crisis falls on leaders who have kicked the can down the road for forty years. We must acknowledge that this long-term failure has led to the collapse of key institutions like the Immigration Courts and has deeply polarized our nation. The path forward is not through more of the same. We must simplify legal immigration pathways to match our economic needs and take a more measured and sustainable approach until we have restored order to the system and lowered our national political temperature.

I have watched our healthcare system collapse from every angle. My wife works at Yale Health, and I’ve seen firsthand how federal funding cuts to the NIH, the National Science Council, and Medicaid have shuttered programs and stripped away the resources doctors and patients rely on. These cuts have consequences—treatments that once were available vanish, preventive care is delayed, and the entire system lurches under financial strain.

In one of the wealthiest nations on earth, it is unconscionable that trans children can no longer access gender-affirming care in many states. That is not just a setback; it is a catastrophe for families who already face enough challenges navigating adolescence in a society that targets them. Women across the country are being stripped of reproductive health access. Families are rationing insulin. Seniors are delaying prescriptions to cover rent. This is what happens when healthcare is politicized instead of treated as a human right.

Meanwhile, billions flow into subsidies for pharmaceutical corporations and insurance giants, while working families fight over scraps. The Affordable Care Act was supposed to be a step forward, but instead it entrenched a two-tier system—where those who can pay navigate private networks, and those who cannot are left waiting in lines that get longer every year.

I believe no family in Connecticut—or anywhere in the United States—should lose a loved one or live in fear because our government refuses to guarantee care. I will fight for:

• Universal healthcare coverage: every resident of Connecticut and every American should have healthcare as a guaranteed right.
• Robust federal investment in research and treatment: restore and expand NIH, NSC, and Medicaid funding.
• Drug price justice: break Big Pharma monopolies, end patent abuse, and cap the price of insulin and essential medicines.
• Mental health and addiction services: fully integrate them into our national healthcare system, rather than leaving families to scramble for help.

Healthcare must be guaranteed, not rationed. It is the foundation of a free society, and until we secure it, we will always live in fear..

The Veterans Health Administration should be the gold standard of care for those who risked their lives in service. Instead, it has become a system that betrays many of the very people it was built to serve.

Low-level soldiers and enlisted veterans—the men and women who carried the heaviest burdens of our wars—are routinely deprioritized. They wait months for appointments, are passed between offices, and are left without answers. Many veterans in Connecticut face homelessness and untreated mental health conditions not because care doesn’t exist, but because the system actively fails to reach them.

Meanwhile, the administration itself has become a retirement club for generals and senior officers. High-ranking soldiers rotate into the VA bureaucracy, securing cushy posts and guarding their privileges. This revolving door ensures that the interests of those at the top are protected, while systemic problems go unaddressed. The result is a VA that serves insiders, not soldiers.

That must end. Veterans deserve more than speeches at parades. They deserve the care they were promised.

I will fight for:

• Restructuring the VA to prioritize enlisted and working-class veterans in leadership posts, not Pentagon brass.
• Guaranteed timely care for every veteran, no matter their rank, with wait times tracked and enforced.
• Accountability at the top: break the revolving door between Pentagon leadership and VA administration.
• Expansion of community-based care: allow veterans to access civilian health systems when the VA fails to provide timely or adequate treatment.
• Mental health and housing support: expand targeted services for PTSD, addiction, and homelessness prevention.

Justice for veterans means putting soldiers, not generals, first. It means ensuring the mechanic, the medic, the driver, and the infantryman have the same access to care as the colonel or the general. It means ending the betrayal of working-class soldiers who gave everything for this country and received nothing but neglect in return.

It is the safest and greenest form of energy, and we cannot go back in time to before the invention of Artificial Intelligence. We have to find a way to power our future economy, without burning down our whole planet. We are between a rock and a hard place if we develop AI while extracting fossil fuels to power AI facilities, but luckily we do not have to be.

I am not saying that this makes me happy – I would prefer a land of small cabins and green fields powered by water wheels – but we have to think like adults and with a logic fitting the developments of our time.

Connecticut’s 3rd District sits on the front lines of climate change. From shoreline towns like Milford, Branford, Guilford and New Haven to inland farms in the Valley, we are already living with stronger storms, higher tides, heavier rains, and rising insurance costs. Families face the impossible choice of staying in homes that may not survive the next storm or moving away from the communities they have lived in for generations. Farmers are watching their fields flood and crops rot, without a safety net to recover.

We cannot wait until catastrophe strikes to act. We need a Shoreline Resilience and Climate Security plan that brings federal money back home to reinforce our coast, protect inland valleys, and make insurance affordable for families and farms.

My plan includes:

• Federal investment in shoreline defenses: funding to reinforce seawalls, restore marshes and dunes, and harden infrastructure in shoreline towns to prevent storm surges from devastating homes.
• Insurance fairness: create a federal reinsurance backstop so shoreline homeowners and farmers are not bankrupted by skyrocketing private insurance rates, and so families in West Haven, Milford, and Branford can afford to stay in their homes.
• Farm and Valley protection: expand disaster insurance and federal relief programs for farms in the Valley, where floods and crop destruction are increasing every year. Farmers should not lose everything because of extreme weather they cannot control.
• Climate adaptation jobs: make shoreline resilience a source of good-paying union jobs, from rebuilding piers and harbors to dredging Long Island Sound, so our communities are not only safer but more prosperous.
• Targeted aid for vulnerable households: prioritize support for working-class and elderly residents in flood-prone areas, so resilience is not just for the wealthy but for everyone.

If we can spend billions on defense abroad, we can defend Connecticut families here at home. Protecting our shoreline and valleys is not only about climate adaptation—it is about preserving our communities, securing our food supply, and ensuring every family in this district has a safe place to live.