MAI’S PLATFORM

No Corporate PAC Money — EVER

Unlike Doris Matsui, who has received millions in corporate donations, I only answer to you. I refuse money from corporate PACs because you can't fight for working families while taking checks from the corporations making our lives harder. I can't be bought.

💰 An Economy for Working Families

Working families are getting squeezed from every direction — groceries, rent, child care, gas, prescriptions. I know what that’s like. I grew up in a low-income household, helped raise my 15 siblings. Today, I teach and my husband works 12-hour shifts so our family can have a safety net. 

In Congress, I’ll take on the corporations and special interests driving up costs to pad their profits.

  • Donald Trump’s illegal tariffs acted as a hidden tax on every working family and small business in our region. While local shops struggled to keep the lights on, giant corporations used the chaos to price-gouge our community – padding their record profits while passing the bill straight to us. Now that the courts have ruled these tariffs illegal, it’s time those corporations pay us back. Those refunds belong to the local businesses and families who actually carried the burden, not to corporate shareholders.

    In Congress, I’ll fight to break up the monopolies that are crushing our neighborhood shops and put money back into the hands of local employers so they can hire locally, stay open, and keep our economy rooted in the people who live here.

  • A handful of people own more wealth than the bottom half of our entire country, yet they’re the ones getting tax cuts while the rest of us struggle to get by. Working families shouldn’t be stretched thin while the ultra-rich use loopholes created by their allies in Congress to avoid paying their fair share.

    I'll vote to make billionaires pay their fair share and close corporate loopholes so we can invest that money back into the communities that need it.

  • I will fight to raise the minimum wage and tie it to inflation so it keeps up with the real cost of living. I'll also champion paid family leave, paid sick days, and workers' right to organize. As a proud union member (CFA), I'll push to pass the PRO Act and fully fund the National Labor Relations Board so workers have the power to fight back.

🏥 Healthcare

Corporatized healthcare is literally killing us. An overwhelming number of Californians struggle to pay for insurance and their medical bills. While health executives take home massive bonuses, seniors are forced to choose between life-saving medication and their rent. For 21 years, Doris Matsui has been in Washington and during that time, she has accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from private insurers like UnitedHealthcare. A representative bankrolled by the insurance companies cannot hold that industry accountable.

  • We deserve affordable, quality healthcare no matter what job we have, where we live, or how much we earn. We deserve a healthcare system that serves everyone. 

    In Congress, I will be a relentless advocate for Medicare for All to guarantee healthcare as a right for every American. I will fight to eliminate medical debt, slash prescription costs, and protect Social Security and Medicare from cuts. I am proud to have the support of our nurses because they know I’m the only candidate in this race who puts patients over profits. I refuse to take a dime of insurance or Big Pharma PAC money.

  • Reproductive care is healthcare—period. We need federal protections that guarantee the right to choose for everyone, no matter what state they live in. I will fight to ensure that insurance companies are required to cover full reproductive care and that our providers have the federal backing to serve every patient without fear.

  • Whether you live in South Sacramento, the foothills of El Dorado, or the farming communities of Lodi, your zip code should never determine your health. The establishment has watched as our rural clinics struggled and specialist care moved further away. I’ve already proven I won't wait for Washington to act—during the pandemic, I led the effort to build the largest vaccination clinic in the region to ensure our most isolated neighbors weren't left behind.

    In Congress, I will fight to protect the funding for community health centers and mobile clinics that serve as lifelines for our rural and immigrant families. I’ll push for federal programs that train and place healthcare workers directly in our local towns, so you don't have to drive an hour for basic care.

🏠 Housing

While corporate landlords and big real estate developers drive up housing costs to make billions in profit, working families can barely afford the rent or pay their mortgages every month. When Doris Matsui first went to Washington 21 years ago, a working family could still buy a home in Sacramento on a modest salary. Today, that same house is being auctioned off to the highest corporate bidder. 

Corporate landlords and big real estate developers are creating the housing and homelessness crisis we're experiencing in California and across the country. Our neighbors are one rent increase away from losing their homes and are working two or three jobs just to keep a roof over their heads. For the next generation, buying their first home is harder than ever. 

I'm running because we cannot wait for the status quo to solve a crisis it created.

  • If we want to solve the housing and homelessness crisis, we need more housing at an affordable price point and we must protect people from losing their homes. In Congress, I will fight to massively increase federal funding for new construction and make it easier to build more housing for the teachers, nurses, and working families–not just the highest bidder.

  • Housing is an essential, basic need—not a luxury. I’ll fight to pass federal laws that prevent big corporations from buying up single family homes, stopping them from outbidding local families and inflating prices. I will champion a Federal Renters' Bill of Rights to ensure that "just cause" eviction protections and fair rent standards aren't just local luxuries, but a national standard.

  • On the Sacramento City Council, I helped deliver the first drop in homelessness in over a decade by focusing on what actually works: prevention. 

    I fought for the emergency rental assistance that kept hundreds of families off the streets. In Washington, I’ll take that same focus to the federal level—investing in mental health, supportive services, and permanent housing. We don't need sweeps that just push people from one block to another; we need a federal government that treats homelessness like the emergency it is.

🎓 Child Care and Education

  • In our region, families are making impossible sacrifices to provide child care. I’m living this right now, caring for my parents and raising teenage boys. In Congress, I will fight for Universal Child Care so no parent is forced to choose between a paycheck and their child’s wellbeing. We’re going to stop treating care as a luxury and start treating it as a right—guaranteeing living wages for care workers and capping costs for families. From Elk Grove to South Sacramento, when we invest in our children, we're building the foundation for every family to thrive.

  • I’m a teacher and a proud graduate of public education. Public schools gave me — the daughter of low-income refugee parents — the chance to earn a master’s degree and serve my community. Public schools accept and support every kid, no matter what. I’ll fight to protect their funding and resist efforts to divert public dollars to charter schools or private voucher programs.

  • I’m still paying off the student loans. I know exactly what it feels like to have your future weighed down by a bill that never seems to shrink. When Doris Matsui first took office in 2005, the average student graduated with about $17,000 in debt. Today, that number has more than doubled to nearly $40,000, while public tuition has skyrocketed over 190%. 

    In Congress, I will champion free tuition at our public colleges and universities so that every student has a fair shot, regardless of their zip code. I will be a relentless advocate for real student debt forgiveness and will block every corporate effort to roll back the relief our families need. We don’t need more "wait and see" leadership; we need a representative who will finally take on the big banks and the establishment to make life more affordable.

Immigration

Immigration isn’t a political talking point for me—it’s my life. I’ve seen how our broken system has impacted my family who are Hmong refugees and Mexican immigrants. ICE has become President Trump’s secret police, hiding behind masks and terrorizing our communities. ICE cannot be reformed. From the beginning, ICE has violated international human rights. We cannot rely on strongly worded letters and staged press conferences to protect our loved ones – including US citizens – from mass deportations. 

For 21 years, Doris Matsui has represented this region, yet we are no closer to a solution. Under her watch, ICE’s budget TRIPLED under both Democratic and Republican leadership (all prior to Trump 2.0). Our communities have been told by the establishment to be patient as green card wait times stretch into decades and families are torn apart. 

I have a proven record of stepping up to lead: I fought to make Sacramento a sanctuary city and am working to ban ICE from city property. I’ve developed raid preparedness plans, and secured the legal aid funding that keeps families together. Unlike Doris, I will never accept donations from companies that are profiting from ICE.

Here’s how we can Abolish ICE:

  • Stop the waste of $175,000,000,000 taxpayer dollars to an agency that operates without oversight. Defund the machinery of mass deportation and reinvest those billions into our schools, healthcare, and community stability.

  • End "qualified immunity" for ICE agents, ensuring that those who violate civil rights or separate families are held personally and legally accountable for their actions. Ban them from hiding their faces.

  • ICE has turned our private data and new AI tools into a digital dragnet to track our neighbors. I will work on legislation to stop the government from selling our data to ICE and ban the use of invasive surveillance tech that violates the privacy of every American.

  • The mass deportation agenda is a war on children. I will fight to immediately close for-profit detention centers and ensure that no child is ever held behind bars or torn from their parents’ arms.

  • In Congress, I will fight for a comprehensive pathway to citizenship that moves our neighbors out of the shadows and provides permanent protection for Dreamers and TPS recipients. I will work to end the arbitrary green card limits that keep families separated and fully fund the services to clear backlogs. We need a leader who treats a pathway to citizenship as a moral necessity. When our immigrant neighbors thrive, our entire region thrives.

🕊️Foreign Policy

My family fled the CIA’s Secret War in Laos as Hmong refugees. I carry the memory of what happens when our government chooses war over diplomacy: families torn apart and trauma that haunts generations.

Today, as conflict devastates communities from Gaza to Iran to Ukraine to Sudan, our mission must be to protect life—not fund its destruction. We need a representative who refuses to profit from the industries fueling this violence. I will fight to redirect our tax dollars from endless wars abroad into healthcare and housing here at home.

  • For 21 years, Doris Matsui has voted to fund endless wars. In 2024, while Doris was cashing checks from AIPAC, I was in City Hall passing Sacramento’s ceasefire resolution.

    In Congress, I will fight to end military aid that enables war crimes and the occupation of Gaza. I will immediately sign onto the "Block the Bombs" legislation to stop the flow of weapons used to kill innocent civilians. Every dollar we spend on endless war is a dollar stolen from our schools, our housing, and our healthcare.

  • The 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force has been abused for too long, I’ll fight to repeal it and put the power over war and peace back where it belongs — with the people. We must honor international law and do all we can to stop endless wars and protect communities from violence and human rights abuses.

🗳️ Taking Back Our Democracy

Our democracy is under attack, and we can’t fix it with the same stagnant leadership that broke it. For 21 years, Doris Matsui has been part of the Washington establishment that allowed Citizens United to hand our elections to billionaires and extremist justices to pack the Supreme Court.

  • Our voting rights are under attack. With the passage of the SAVE Act and the dismantling of civil rights protections, we need representatives who will fight to protect our vote. I’ve worked on the ground to increase participation through grassroots outreach and by supporting "Vote 16" initiatives to empower the next generation and expand language access so people could actually utilize city services in their own language. 

    In Congress, I will fight to protect voting rights, demand oversight if ICE ever comes near a polling location and champion the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to ensure our democracy is accessible to everyone.

    • End Corporate Control: I will champion a constitutional amendment to reverse Citizens United. Billionaires, corporations, and extremist groups are using their money to destroy our democracy–we the people must have the courage to fight back.

    • Ban Stock Trading in Congress: It is a clear conflict of interest for members of Congress to trade stocks while they are passing laws that impact those same companies. I will fight for a total ban on Congressional stock trading to ensure representatives are focused on your bank account, not theirs.

    • Close the Revolving Door: I’ll push to stop the pipeline between Congress and high-paid lobbying firms. Our representatives should be focused on your priorities, not their next corporate paycheck.

🌍 Ready for Climate Change

  • California families shouldn't have to choose between staying in their homes and staying safe. I've seen firsthand how climate disasters ripple through working-class communities — stripping families of coverage, driving up costs, and leaving people with nowhere to turn.

    The Trump Administration has gutted lifesaving wildfire prevention programs, and Congress is failing to act. That's unacceptable. In Washington, I will fight to restore funding for fuel mitigation, rebuild the Forest Service, and make wildfire prevention a national priority — not a political bargaining chip.

    The fire insurance crisis is real and it's urgent, especially for homeowners and small businesses in rural communities who are being priced out or dropped altogether. I'll push for bold solutions: rebuilding a functioning insurance market and creating the state backstop families need to stay covered at rates they can actually afford.

  • My home in South Sacramento faces extreme heat, polluted air, high utility bills, and not enough green space — the result of decades of underinvestment. I’ll fight to fund a Green New Deal that transitions our economy to clean energy, creates good-paying jobs, and makes sure frontline communities are first in line for investment.

  • In our region, climate change isn’t a distant threat—it’s the smoke in our lungs during fire season, the extreme heat in the summers, and the rising floodwaters threatening our homes. But while our families pay the price for this crisis, big oil and energy companies are reaping record profits. Doris Matsui has accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from the very companies fueling the destruction of our planet. We cannot expect a leader who is bankrolled by polluters to hold them accountable.

    I will fight to make polluters pay for the climate destruction they’ve caused and pass legislation to stop energy companies from using your ratepayer dollars to lobby against our future. I’m not taking corporate PAC money, which means I'll be free to champion clean energy and ensure our transition creates good-paying, local jobs right here in CA-7.

  • As a member of the Sacramento Regional Transit Board, I fought to expand public transit to underserved communities and protect free transit passes for students. In Congress, I’ll protect and grow public transit funding, expand access to zero-emission vehicles, and invest in safe biking and walking routes so people don’t have to drive everywhere.

  • Republicans in Washington have made it clear they want to sell off our public lands to the highest bidder. I'll fight to permanently protect our public lands from privatization, block attempts to open our parks and open spaces to oil drilling and corporate development, and ensure places like the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the Sierra foothills remain in the hands of the people, not private profiteers. 

    The Trump Administration gutted critical clean energy programs and rolled back vehicle standards. I’ll fight to restore those investments, direct at least 40% of federal climate dollars to the communities most impacted by pollution, and stop new fossil fuel projects.

💦 Water & Land Use

  • Water Protection

    California's farmers, ranchers, and rural communities need reliable water and I will fight to protect it. I will defend agricultural water allocations, restore USDA support programs, and oppose the tariffs squeezing California's producers.

    I oppose the Delta Conveyance Project. Newsom's tunnel exports Northern California water south at the expense of Delta farmers, fishing communities, and ecosystems. I will vote against federal funding for it.

    The Trump Administration is dismantling the EPA and rolling back Clean Water Act protections that communities depend on. I will fight to restore EPA funding and enforcement, protect clean drinking water standards, and block federal rollbacks that put our groundwater at risk. Every family in this district deserves water that is safe to drink and a water supply that is secure for generations.

  • Our public lands belong to all of us — and I will fight to keep them that way. I will vote against any legislation that opens federal lands to sale or privatization, and I will push to fully fund the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, agencies that have been gutted for years.

    Selling off our forests, lakes, and rivers doesn't just destroy natural resources — it kills the mountain town economies that depend on them. From South Lake Tahoe to the Yuba River, these lands define this district. I will defend them.

  • Sacramento sits at the confluence of two major rivers and is still one of the most flood-vulnerable cities in the country. After 20 years in Congress and over $3 billion in federal spending, the West Sacramento Project protecting 54,000 residents is unfinished. Natomas levees are still being strengthened. Flood insurance rates have gone up. Three billion dollars and Sacramento families are still at risk. That is not a record — that is a failure of urgency.

    In Congress, I will treat flood protection as the emergency it is. I will push to complete the West Sacramento Project, fully fund levee improvements along the American and Sacramento Rivers, and work with the Army Corps of Engineers and SAFCA to accelerate every outstanding project in the pipeline. I will reform the National Flood Insurance Program so that Sacramento homeowners are actually paying less — not being promised less while paying more.

    We have the blueprints. We have the partnerships. What we have lacked is a representative who treats this as urgent. I will.

⚖ Human Rights

  • The Trump Administration is systematically targeting LGBTQ+ Americans — stripping protections, banning transgender service members, and rolling back civil rights enforcement. I will fight back.

    As a woman of color and daughter of refugees, I know that injustice is rarely simple. LGBTQ+ people who are also people of color, immigrants, or low-income face compounding discrimination that single-issue policy cannot fix. I will bring that lens to every fight.

    In Congress, I will vote to pass the Equality Act, restore federal nondiscrimination protections, and oppose any legislation that weaponizes the law against LGBTQ+ people. I will defend access to gender-affirming care, protect LGBTQ+ youth in schools, and push back against efforts to erase LGBTQ+ people from public life.

  • Women's rights are under direct attack and I will fight back. The SAVE Act would disenfranchise millions of women who changed their names through marriage or divorce. I will vote against it. Reproductive freedom is non-negotiable. I will fight to codify abortion rights into federal law and oppose any national ban or restrictions on contraception.

    Protecting women and girls from violence is personal to me. As a Councilmember, I funded domestic violence prevention programs, expanded protections for survivors, and invested in youth abuse prevention so young people could break cycles of violence before they start. In Congress, I will fully fund the Violence Against Women Act, expand access to shelters and legal aid, and invest in prevention programs that reach young people where they are.

    No woman should have to choose between safety and stability. I will govern with that urgency every day.