Preservation of Democracy, Voting Rights, and Government Accountability
Perhaps the biggest challenge facing Congress at the moment is protecting our democracy. I owe so much of my life story to the Civil Rights Movement that fought – activists, marchers, and the people in power they pushed – to open up US immigration laws in 1965, expand the right to vote to African-Americans, open up economic opportunities, and desegregate public housing.
The Trump Administration’s blatant disregard for the US Constitution and enacted laws is gravely concerning. It is unprecedented and has thrown the American government into chaos with mass unlawful layoffs of federal workers, union busting within federal agencies, funds appropriated by law that are erased at will, all with no accountability. This enrages me. Within the first 10 days of taking office in Congress, I would call for and strongly support investigations into the federal mismanagement of the Trump Administration. I would also call for a trial of the ICE agents who blatantly broke the law during Operation Midway Blitz across Chicagoland and the 9th District. I would use the office to lead on aggressive and assiduous oversight and enforcement of the law to hold the line on the Trump Administration’s federal overreaches. I would also organize law firms that have been targeted by Trump to bring collective action against the Trump Administration to stem the abuses and bring those leading these reckless actions to justice.
Voting Rights are wildly under attack. MAGA Republicans fabricate bizarre theories about voter fraud while intimidating disenfranchised communities from voting. As a Black Member of Congress representing a very diverse district, I would position myself to be a strong and fervent voice in Congress for protecting voting rights and cracking down on jurisdictions that are acting to gut or wipe out settled law on expanded voting rights. I would continue the spirit of the bills I’ve carried and passed in the Illinois Senate, including authoring federal bills to:
- Expand the Supreme Court to 13 seats and create beefed up ethics and compliance rules for Supreme Court Justices and staff
- Turn Election Day into a holiday and implement curbside voting
- Expand the right to pre-register to vote to 16 year olds similar to legislation I passed in the Illinois Senate and is now law in Illinois
- Decry political violence and be a national voice for peaceful creative protest
- Bring forth a bevy of bills to bring sunshine and accountability to how federal agencies make decisions and implement laws and appropriations
- Introduce a national law barring the erasure of Black history and other protected classes in all schools, cultural initiatives, and the Smithsonian
- Restore the right to vote for incarcerated persons similar to legislation I’ve championed in the Illinois Senate
- Advocate for national ranked choice voting
