I have spent my career doing the work that holds communities together — caregiving, teaching, advocacy, policy. I've drafted legislation and testified in Annapolis before I was elected. I know what it takes to move ideas into law. Now I'm asking for the seat to do more.
In District 18, we are lucky to live in one of the most educated, engaged, and resourced communities in the country. That's exactly why we should be leading — not just on the issues that affect us directly, but on the ones that define what kind of society we want to live in.
My platform is built on a straightforward belief: a decent society requires an economic floor and a social infrastructure — care, housing, health, education, and work with dignity. Without them, we cannot truly be free. FDR said it plainly in 1944: necessitous men are not free men. That vision is still ours to finish.
Pillar 1: The Infrastructure We Can’t See, But Can’t Live Without
Children and Caregiving Across the Life Course
Why I Fight
I have worked in entry-level and service jobs, in corporate America and the public sector, in nonprofits and government. And like most of us, I have also been a caregiver That experience is not incidental to my policy platform. It is the foundation of it.
We know that families — especially women — quietly hold up systems that governments and markets refuse to build. Our state’s economy depends on workers who are healthy, housed, fed, and supported. Democracy depends on people having enough stability to participate in it. And yet we treat caregiving as invisible, unpaid, or barely paid, and then wonder why so many families are barely holding on.
It is this experience which led me to propose a unified caregiver program—a program that integrates childcare, elder care, and disability support. Caregivers deserve a system of support for the essential work that they do—not a patchwork of charity that only kicks in when you have spent down your savings.
Care is not a side issue. It is the social infrastructure that enables our families, businesses, and community to function.
I have been the caregiver and the one who needed care. I am running to build the systems that make both possible with dignity.
What I’ll Fight For
Caregiver supports that:
do not privilege any particular family structure or choice,
recognize the value of care,
support working parents and stay-at-home parents alike, and
include meaningful support for caregivers of school-age children so families can afford summer programs, camps, and aftercare
Grants to licensed care providers who serve children and adults with special needs and dementia — because these families carry the heaviest load with the least support
Programs that allow seniors and people with disabilities to fully participate in our community
Ensure that our built community is accessible to everyone—including those in wheelchairs or with strollers
Schools and Skills
Why I Fight
I have had children in public elementary, middle, and high school. I have taught. I have seen what great public schools can do — and how they fail children when they are underresourced, overcrowded, and undervalued.
I believe public schools have to be good enough for every child who walks through the door, not just the lucky ones.
I believe in investing in teachers and tradespeople with equal seriousness. Both are building Maryland’s future.
What I’ll Fight For
Access to publicly funded pre-K for every family in Maryland so every child starts with a real foundation
Build for the Future with investment in Montgomery County’s building trades programs, expanding program capacity, integrating training on universal design and sustainability, and creating a future-ready workforce
Establish and expand apprenticeship programs that strengthen Maryland’s economic competitiveness with training in the skills needed to build satellites and NextGen powerplants
Launch Teach for Maryland — a fast-track pathway for qualified displaced workers, delivered at scale to meet the enormous need for teachers, particularly in high-need subjects and schools
Protect and expand school nutrition programs to provide meals for every child in public schools because a child who is hungry cannot learn
Support community schools as hubs connecting families to community resources for housing assistance, health care, and childcare
Ensure robust support for multilingual learners and English language acquisition programs — immigrant children and children of immigrants strengthen our schools and our community, and they deserve a real chance to thrive from day one
Pillar 2: A Community Built for Working People
Housing Stability and Smart Growth
Why I Fight
In our community, roughly a third of our neighbors rent their homes. They are young families, seniors on fixed incomes in Friendship Heights high-rises, teachers and nurses who keep our community running. They deserve the same stability, the same voice, and the same investment as everyone else.
When my husband and I bought our first house in St. Louis in 1997, my single income of $30,000 a year was enough to qualify for an FHA loan on a solid house in a real neighborhood. What has changed since then is not housing — it is wages. Salaries have not kept pace with the cost of a home, the cost of rent, or the cost of anything else. That is not simply a housing problem. It is a problem of fairness and incentives. And we can fix it.
The answer is not simply “build more houses” and trust the market. The market builds what turns a profit. Without intentional policy, that means bigger, more expensive homes for fewer and fewer buyers.
What we need is more moderately priced housing, in the right places, built to last — and the public policy that gets us there.
If you pay your rent and follow the rules, your landlord should have to give you a real reason before showing you the door.
What I’ll Fight For
Support production of moderately priced homes with union labor, rooftop solar, and universal design built in from the start
Provide Montgomery County with the flexibility and funding to build more housing of more types so that individuals and families at all stages of life have dignified living spaces
Fast-track permitting and incentives for builders who incorporate universal design or build solar-ready homes — because the development we want deserves to move faster than the development we don’t
Enable counties to require landlords to cite a specific reason before evicting a tenant; “no cause” evictions destabilize our families, schools, and community
Strengthen habitability and repair enforcement: mandatory timelines, escalating penalties, and real retaliation protections for tenants whose landlords who don’t follow the law
Reform tenant screening to remove barriers that unfairly exclude working people — teachers, nurses, young adults, voucher holders, and immigrant families
Require that housing assistance programs and renter protections are accessible in multiple languages, so that immigrant families can access the protections they are legally entitled to
Democracy, Health, and Fairness
Why I Fight
You cannot have a functioning democracy when people are afraid to participate in it. Workers who can speak up, organize, and participate in civic life without fear of retaliation are not a special interest. They are the foundation of a free society.
I know what it is to stay silent because you cannot afford to lose your job and your healthcare. My own work experience led me to draft a policy, recruit sponsors and witnesses, advocate and testify for a bill that was heard this year in the state legislature. The bill came from the conviction that no employee should have to choose between a paycheck and healthcare for their kids and the right to speak and protest, legally, when they are not at work.
What I’ll Fight For
Continue to advocate to protect workers from employer retaliation for civic participation and lawful expression outside the workplace
Support collective bargaining rights across every sector of the Maryland economy
Mandate union labor and union contractors on all state-funded construction and infrastructure projects
Use the power of the state to divest from any companies involved in private prison companies or mass surveillance — public safety should never be a for-profit enterprise and our tax dollars should not be invested in technology that threatens our freedom
Demand that large businesses operating in Maryland pay their fair share — nearly a third currently pay no state taxes while relying on our roads, energy, and people
Subsidize access to the Maryland health exchange for participants in state incubators and small business programs
Shore up the state health and social safety net programs so that more entrepreneurs can start small businesses
Ensure immigrant Marylanders continue to have full access to public schools, universities, and essential social services — and replace with state dollars any federal funding that is withdrawn as a tool of intimidation
Expand community schools programs and public health clinics to serve as trusted access points for immigrant families, offering legal information, health services, and connections to state programs
Champion HB 1356 / SB 857, the Maryland Employee Civic Activity and Lawful Expression Protection Act — so that immigrant workers and all Marylanders can speak up, organize, and advocate without fear of employer retaliation
The decisions Maryland makes right now about energy, transportation, and technology will shape our economy, our climate, and our quality of life for decades. These are not abstract policy debates. They show up in your air, your water, your electric bill, your commute, your ability to get a job or start a business, whether your neighborhood stays livable, and your sense of freedom and possibility.
Pillar 3: The Future is Already Here – Transit, Energy, Tech, and Innovation
Maryland has the workforce, the infrastructure, and the ingenuity. What we need is the political will to invest in it.
Transportation: Connecting Maryland, Connecting People
Why I Fight
Inadequate public transportation is not a minor inconvenience. It is a driver of inequality and a barrier to civic participation. It reinforces the racial segregation of the past for communities like ours which want a different future.
When workers must depend on private vehicles or multi-transfer bus routes to reach jobs that require in-person work, transportation costs hit hardest on those least able to bear them. When getting to Annapolis requires a car, access to government becomes a function of wealth.
Maryland has legacy rail lines and rights-of-way crisscrossing the state — assets we are not fully using. We also have a Hitachi Rail factory in Hagerstown building state-of-the-art electric metro railcars for DC and Baltimore, while no operable passenger rail connects Hagerstown to the rest of Maryland. We could become a hub of the regional economy, but we need to double down on transit.
What I’ll Fight For
Invest in east-west and north-south rail connections using Maryland’s existing legacy rail corridors and rights-of-way — linking communities that are currently isolated from the state’s economic and civic life
Connect Maryland’s counties through rapid electric bus service, reducing reliance on private vehicles and lowering transportation costs for working families
Strengthen transit connections to our neighbors in Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia — because our regional economy does not stop at the state line
Sustain investment in roads and bridges, which have been long neglected and are essential to expanded inter-county and interstate service
Prioritize transit investments that reduce racial, geographic, and economic segregation — ensuring that access to jobs, hospitals, schools, libraries, and government is not determined by ZIP code or car ownership
Energy: Affordable, Reliable, and Ours
Why I Fight
Maryland ratepayers have been paying more for electricity — much more – not because they are using more, but because of decisions made by PJM, the regional transmission organization that runs our grid. In 2024, energy auction prices jumped 800%, driven in part by demand from heavy energy users like data centers and older facilities retiring faster than new ones come online.
The result is an energy grid that is both more expensive and more fragile. We can’t fix this with Band-Aids. We must build our way out with clean, distributed energy, smarter regulation, and accountability for the heaviest users. The cheap abundant green energy we want deserves investment
What I’ll Fight For
Implement tiered utility rates so that heavy users — including large commercial and industrial customers — pay more, reducing the burden on residential ratepayers and small businesses
Require heavy users to fund the grid infrastructure improvements their demand necessitates
Enable more households and businesses to generate their own power by expanding incentives for rooftop solar and wind installation
Explore a single-state or multi-state grid alternative to PJM that is accountable to the people it serves
Enable Maryland to contract power supply directly from generators rather than through PJM’s capacity market, giving the state more leverage over pricing
Technology and Data Centers
Why I Fight
Data centers can bring construction jobs and support the digital infrastructure our economy depends on. They can also drive up utility costs for every Maryland household, consume enormous amounts of water, and industrialize residential and agricultural land if we let them.
I support data center development in Maryland — but only under rules that protect ratepayers, communities, and the environment, and that require these businesses to bear the costs of the infrastructure they demand. Refusing to permit data centers here will not reduce their impact on our electricity prices, but state-level siting authority, labor standards, and self-sufficiency requirements.
What I’ll Fight For
Require data centers to generate their own power so they do not increase costs for other ratepayers — and allow those with excess capacity to sell it back to PJM
State-level zoning that restricts data center construction to industrial zones (I-1, I-2) and strong environmental and noise standards, protecting residential neighborhoods and agricultural land
Require use of Maryland union labor and participation in apprenticeship programs for all data center construction
Establish a dedicated fund, supported by a special tax on data center and tech company profits, to support workers displaced by automation and artificial intelligence — because the gains of the technology sector should help cushion its disruptions
Building Maryland’s Innovation Economy
Why I Fight
Maryland is home to world-class federal research institutions, universities, and a highly educated workforce — including a large and growing immigrant population that is a cornerstone of our scientific and entrepreneurial strength. But we are leaving enormous economic potential on the table by failing to translate that talent into Maryland-rooted industries, businesses, and jobs. The federal funding caused personal, family, and community crises across our community. We need to invest in the incredible talent laid off from NIH and USAID. With their help, we can build a more durable state economy.
What I’ll Fight For
Maryland’s space tech sector — supporting commercial space companies, satellite manufacturing, their supply chain, the contractors and tradespeople that serve them, and the apprenticeship programs already training the next generation of aerospace workers, electricians as well as engineers
Grow Maryland’s life sciences and biotechnology sector by expanding state investment in research infrastructure, streamlining paths from university lab to startup
Build Maryland into a national leader in green energy technology — manufacturing, storage, grid technology, and efficiency — by pairing investment in clean energy infrastructure with workforce training
Invest in environmental restoration as an economic sector — Chesapeake Bay restoration, wetlands and forest conservation, stormwater management, and climate resilience infrastructure are sources of jobs, public health, and quality of life that deserve sustained state investment
Protect and welcome the immigrant scientists, engineers, researchers, and entrepreneurs who have helped build Maryland’s innovation economy — supporting state-level protections that keep Maryland open to the world
Expand apprenticeship and workforce training programs — in partnership with community colleges, unions, and industry — so that Marylanders at every education level, including immigrants and first-generation workers, can access the good jobs that Maryland’s innovation economy will create
A Note on Artificial Intelligence
AI is already reshaping employment, productivity, and public life. Maryland should be at the table setting the rules — not reacting after the fact. I support using the leverage of state procurement, tax policy, and labor law to ensure that the benefits of AI are broadly shared and that workers displaced by automation have a real path forward. I also believe Maryland should divest from companies that use technology to enable mass surveillance or undermine democratic participation.