Issues

Carmela is fighting for the families, small businesses, and farmers being squeezed by skyrocketing costs. Whether it’s veterans on food stamps, seniors on fixed incomes, young people looking to return home after college, or people starting a family, costs putting people on a razor’s edge of losing their homes and livelihoods. Carmela will stand up to big pharma and cap out-of-control prices for life-saving medications like insulin. She will fight to ensure these and other life-saving prescriptions cost no more than $2,000 a year for folks on Medicare.

Carmela will invest in affordable housing across eastern Washington and help more families access lower rate mortgages. She’ll put an end to reckless trade wars, and stop big corporations from poisoning our environment and looting locally-owned businesses.

Carmela will support farmers by negotiating a bipartisan Farm Bill, including restoring predictable insurance and reliable access to export markets; helping respond to increasing threats of wildfires and droughts; and funding SNAP and other food aid programs.

Every season, during critical harvesting and planting times, when farm equipment breaks, work stops, and manufacturers keep farmers from fixing the equipment themselves. Carmela will fight for a national right-to-repair bill requiring manufacturers to allow farmers and local small businesses do the work to keep equipment running.

Carmela understands that high-quality apprenticeship programs help young people access transformational, wealth-building opportunities. She’ll fight to ensure everyone can set their sights on a good-paying job by expanding federal support for apprenticeships.

Thousands of childcare and early learning centers have shuttered their doors in the last few years, leaving families with an impossible choice: either lose essential income by staying home, or pay the equivalent of college tuition to send their kid to an expensive childcare center, if they can even find one. Restoring access to high-quality and affordable early learning will help working families participate in our economy, reduce racial and gender inequalities, and address one of the driving factors of the lack of affordability in our communities.

Carmela believes proper support to those who put their lives on the line for our country. It is shameful that military families and veterans in our district are struggling to keep a roof over their heads and put food on the table.

In Congress, Carmela will work to streamline the complex systems and replace the Cerner medical records system that is killing our veterans. She will work to secure funding that enhances military family quality of life, resilience, and housing affordability at Fairchild Air Force Base.

Carmela believes patients’ medical decisions are between them and their healthcare practitioners. That means no restrictions on whether, when, or how, a woman and her doctor approach reproductive healthcare including abortion, contraception, or pregnancy.

As deputy prosecutor in Spokane County, Carmela worked alongside law enforcement to hold violent offenders accountable and fight for justice for survivors of sexual assault. She supports increasing funding for police training and recruitment.

But being serious about safety is more than accountability for those who commit crimes, and justice for victims. It’s about funding quality pre-K and K-12 public schools so that every child receives a well-rounded education tailored to their needs. It’s about having an open economy so that people are equipped to contribute to and benefit from being in the labor force. Crime drops when people have access to quality education and meaningful work.