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The three priorities I am bringing into this race are education, public safety, and economic development, with a specific focus on small business and equitable access.

Education is first because everything else depends on it. I am a first-generation college student who self-funded my education, and I understand, in a way that is not theoretical, what it costs when the system underinvests in the people coming up through it. In a district like mine, covering Anaheim, Orange, and Santa Ana, the quality of public education is not an equity talking point. It is a daily reality for families deciding whether to stay or leave. I intend to be a legislator who protects education funding as a non-negotiable line item and pushes for the resources, teachers, and infrastructure that schools in this district have long deserved.

Public safety is second because it is foundational to everything else we are trying to build. Communities cannot grow, businesses cannot thrive, and families cannot put down roots in places where they do not feel safe. I support fully funding law enforcement, investing in intervention programs that address the conditions that drive crime, and ensuring victims have real support systems rather than just case numbers.

Economic development is third, and I mean that broadly. Small businesses in Anaheim, Orange, and Santa Ana are the economic backbone of this district, but they are being squeezed out by regulatory burdens, fees, and barriers that disproportionately burden owners without teams of lawyers and lobbyists. Equitable access to capital, to permits, to opportunity, is not a progressive slogan. It is a practical requirement for a district economy that actually works for the people who live here.

My qualifications for this office are not traditional, and I consider that a strength rather than a gap.

I am an enrolled member of the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians, Acjachemen Nation, currently serving as Tribal Secretary for my Nation while simultaneously pursuing a Master of Laws. That combination of civic service and legal education has given me a working understanding of governance, institutional process, and the gap between how policy is written and how it actually lands on real people.

Professionally, I have spent more than two decades in communications and marketing, executive support at the C-suite level, and co-founding a Native American marketing agency where I currently serve as Chief Strategy Officer. I also serve in a senior communications role at a social advocacy nonprofit organization focused on civic engagement for underrepresented communities. Those experiences have required me to manage competing priorities, build consensus across stakeholders, and make consequential decisions under real pressure.

What I bring to this office that career politicians cannot offer is something simpler, and I think more valuable. Common sense. Real business acumen built across multiple industries. The logical, practical thinking of someone who has had to make things actually work rather than just talk about them.

Sacramento has enough career politicians who arrive knowing which caucus to join and which donors to call. District 68 deserves a representative who arrives knowing this district, understanding its people, and committed to one thing above everything else. Making sure the voices of Anaheim, Santa Ana, and Orange are unapologetically heard in the Capitol.

The goal of creating more affordable housing for middle and low-income Californians is one I support without reservation. Where I part ways with some of the legislation passed in recent years is not on the destination but on the method of getting there.

Many of the laws passed to alleviate the housing shortage have focused almost entirely on overriding local zoning rather than addressing the underlying economics that make it unaffordable to build housing in the first place. Permitting costs, environmental review timelines, construction costs, and financing gaps for affordable projects are the actual barriers standing between a housing shortage and a housing solution. A law that tells a city it must allow a six-story building does not pay for that building, does not speed up its permitting, and does not ensure a single unit in it rents for what a working family in Anaheim or Santa Ana can actually afford.

I would prioritize a combination of approaches that address the cost side of the equation directly. That means meaningful permitting reform with hard timelines, expanded funding for affordable housing tax credits and gap financing that make below-market projects financially viable, and real investment in the infrastructure that new housing requires to actually function. It also means protecting existing affordable housing from displacement pressures that quietly erase units at the same rate new ones are being built.

I believe the people most in need of affordable housing deserve more than legislation that signals good intentions while producing insufficient results. They deserve a strategy that is honest about what actually drives housing costs and committed to addressing those drivers in ways that work in the real world rather than just on paper.

This question is personal for me. I was a first-generation college student who navigated higher education without a roadmap or a safety net. That experience taught me that the barriers facing low-income young people in California are not about motivation or ability. They are about access, information, and compounding disadvantages that hit hardest long before anyone is paying attention.

The earliest intervention matters most. High-quality early childhood education for low-income families determines whether a child arrives at kindergarten ready to learn or already behind in ways that take years to recover from. I would fight to protect and expand that funding in communities like ours, where the need is greatest. For some students, the traditional college pathway remains one of the most powerful tools for upward mobility this country has ever produced, and I would not diminish that. Expanding Cal Grant access, simplifying financial aid, funding college counselors in under-resourced schools, and supporting dual enrollment programs that let students earn college credit before they graduate are all investments I would champion.

At the same time, California cannot afford to keep treating vocational and trades training as a consolation prize. We have hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure investment on the way, and a skilled trades workforce aging out faster than we are replacing it. Electricians, welders, pipefitters, and carpenters are well-paying careers with genuine job security, and we are not producing enough people trained to fill them. Funding registered apprenticeships and career technical education pathways gives young people real options and provides California with the skilled workforce it will desperately need.

Both paths lead to dignity and economic stability. A legislator who only funds one of them is not serving the full range of young people in this district.

Water is not an abstract policy issue for me. It is something I think about with a sense of responsibility that goes beyond legislation and into something older and more fundamental. As an enrolled member of the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians, Acjachemen Nation, I come from a people whose relationship with the land and water of California predates every law ever written about it. That relationship carries an obligation to think about water not just as a resource to be managed and distributed but as something to be genuinely protected for the generations that come after us.

With that as my foundation, here is where I stand on the practical policy questions.

Tribal nations in California have some of the oldest and most legitimate water rights in this state, and those rights have been systematically underrecognized and underprotected. I would strongly advocate for tribal water access to be treated with the legal seriousness it deserves, rather than as an afterthought in negotiations dominated by municipal and agricultural interests.

Farmers and agricultural communities are equally critical to this conversation. California's food security depends on a farming sector with reliable water access, and the uncertainty created by inconsistent water policy has real consequences for rural communities and every family that buys food in this state. I would support long-term water agreements that provide agricultural users with the planning certainty they need to remain viable.

On the infrastructure side, California has aging water systems, insufficient storage, and groundwater basins being drawn down faster than they can recharge. Investment in water recycling, storage expansion, and groundwater sustainability is not optional. It is the foundation of everything else we are trying to build in this state.

Water connects all of us. How we share it says everything about who we are.