VOTE411 Voter Guide

Affordability, public safety, making sure Long Island gets its fair share of state and federal funding.

Explore clean-burning natural gas, wind and solar.

We do a good job of it already; keep up those efforts.

Make sure that voting districts should not be drawn primarily on the basis of race.

As a labor leader and former Chief of Staff in local government for over a decade, I've spent my career fighting for working families, and I'll bring that fight to Albany. My top three priorities: the cost-of-living crisis, rebuilding infrastructure, and protecting our environment. On affordability, I'll cap out-of-control home/auto insurer profits, end discrimination based on zip code, income and age, and restore and expand the Essential Plan for New Yorkers who lost coverage to federal cuts while cracking down on Pharmacy Benefit Managers driving up drug prices. I have a record of creating union jobs, having launched NY's first union high school pre-apprenticeship program — I'll bring that model statewide. Second, I'll deliver real infrastructure investment for our district, from railroad crossings to increased LIRR service. Lastly, I'll hold Brookhaven accountable for its landfill's toxic plume, preserve open space, and stop data centers that drive up energy and water costs.

I support a common-sense approach that protects our environment and our wallets. As Chief of Staff to a local legislator, I helped secure $200 million to build the Forge River sewer district, addressing decades of cesspool pollution worsened by flooding and overdevelopment, and I preserved over 1,000 acres of open space to protect our water quality. That same infrastructure-first approach needs to extend to coastal flood resilience for South Shore communities like East Patchogue, Mastic Beach, and Bellport — direct state grants to help families elevate homes, improve drainage, or retreat from areas that never should have been developed. We also need to accelerate wind, solar and natural gas capacity to lower electric bills while cutting emissions, creating good union jobs along the way. Lastly, I support a statewide moratorium on new large-scale data center construction until we understand the strain on our grid and water supply.

I believe economic justice and racial justice go hand in hand. Too many communities of color have been shut out of good-paying union careers — that's why I helped launch New York's first union high school pre-apprenticeship program, and why I'll fight to bring that model to schools statewide, creating real pathways into the trades regardless of zip code. I want to fully ban insurance companies from charging higher rates based on zip code or income — a practice that disproportionately hurts communities of color — and I'll keep pushing to restore and expand affordable healthcare coverage for the working families hit hardest by recent federal cuts. Justice means making sure every community, not just the wealthiest, has access to good jobs, affordable healthcare, and safe housing.

The Supreme Court's decision weakening Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act is deeply troubling; it opens the door for states to draw maps that dilute the political voice of voters with far less accountability. New York can't control what SCOTUS does, but we don't have to rely solely on federal protections. I support fully enforcing and, where necessary, strengthening New York's own John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act, which gives our state courts independent authority to strike down discriminatory maps regardless of federal law. I'll also support transparency and public input requirements in any future NY redistricting process to make sure our maps reflect our communities, not political convenience.