Texas Congressional Election 2018 Political Courage Test

Abortion

1. Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation?
- Pro-choice

2. Other or expanded principles
- Family planning initiatives do more to lower abortion than criminalizing it. Let's fund common sense programs that get results and keep government out of intimate decisions best left to women and their doctors.

Budget

1. In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket?
- Yes

2. In order to balance the budget, do you support reducing defense spending?
- Yes

3. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Campaign Finance

1. Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions?
- Yes

2. Other or expanded principles
- Our political process should not be for sale to the highest bidder. Our political candidates should not be judged solely on how much money they raise. It corrupts the political process and our government itself. It undermines our basic principles of democracy. Campaign finance reform is essential.

Economy

1. Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth?
- Yes

2. Do you support lowering corporate taxes as a means of promoting economic growth?
- No

3. Other or expanded principles
- Direct investment shows more and faster results than wishful legislation that just suggests and hopes for results.

Education

1. Do you support requiring states to adopt federal education standards?
- Yes

2. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Energy & Environment

1. Do you support government funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, thermal)?
- Yes

2. Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions?
- Yes

3. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Guns

1. Do you generally support gun-control legislation?
- Yes

2. Other or expanded principles
- We need to understand why mass killings are an American phenomenon, why citizens are so angry that killing a lot of people becomes an option. Making this all about gun control and gun rights places an unnecessary obstacle in the path of finding real and reasonable solutions. There are ways to have common sense regulations that do not infringe on rights and Congress needs to have the courage to start that process. The hardline stance that allows for absolutely no debate does not help us arrive at real solutions and this is an issue that desperately needs real solutions.

Health Care

1. Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")?
- No

2. Other or expanded principles
- I support affordable health care. The ACA has had a tremendous impact on millions of Americans who would not have been able to get affordable health care otherwise. Americans deserve affordable, accessible, high quality health care. We shouldn't have to worry about an accident or an illness bankrupting our family. We urgently need to address the unreasonable cost of healthcare and medication in our country and the ACA is a step in the right direction. Single payer will most likely be the end solution.

Immigration

1. Do you support the construction of a wall along the Mexican border?
- No

2. Do you support requiring immigrants who are unlawfully present to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship?
- No

3. Other or expanded principles
- I support an immigration system that actually works, that has at its core philosophy the belief that immigrants bring great value; that offers reasonable and possible paths to citizenship for the hardworking immigrants that want it without unnecessary obstacles and hardships; that does not perpetuate false narratives or xenophobia in our society. I would like an organized, respectful and functional immigration system that honors our country's heritage as a nation of immigrants and that honestly addresses the very real shortcomings in our present system and the reality of our society's interdependence on immigrants.

Marijuana

1. Do you support the legalization of marijuana for recreational purposes?
- Yes

2. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

National Security

1. Should the United States use military force in order to prevent governments hostile to the U.S. from possessing a nuclear weapon?
- No

2. Do you support increased American intervention in Middle Eastern conflicts beyond air support?
- No

3. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Administrative Priorities

Please explain in a total of 100 words or less, your top two or three priorities if elected. If they require additional funding for implementation, please explain how you would obtain this funding.
- Rural communities in Texas are underfunded in almost every area: schools, roads, hospitals, and telecommunications. We need more jobs, we need affordable health care and we need quality education. We don?t need more politics. We don?t need an ineffective partisan government that can?t solve the very real problems our communities are facing. America does not have a funding problem, America has a priority problem. We need to put people first and we need a government that gets to work. We need to invest in our communities.