Candidate Q&A
Why are you running?
I am a husband, father of three, and fourth-generation Chicagoan with deep roots throughout Illinois’ 7th Congressional District. My great-grandfather was a peddler on Maxwell Street, and my grandfather owned a hotdog stand on the West Side.
I have a lifetime of experience bringing diverse groups of people together to accomplish common goals, from running a business that has created over 40,000 good-paying, union jobs to working in the White House as a young man to coaching my son’s flag football team. In all of these roles, my success came from compromise and forward thinking, not from the title.
If history and the current state of our politics are any guide, the career politicians we keep sending to Washington are failing to get the job done, and it’s time we elect new voices with new experience and new styles of leadership. I am not a career politician, and I’m the only candidate in this race who has the background to deliver for this community. I am running for Congress as a Democrat who is unafraid to fight back against the Trump Administration and advocate for Illinois’ 7th District with empathy, common sense, and pragmatism.
What do you think is the most pressing issue facing your constituents and how do you plan on addressing it?
Illinois’ 7th District faces a critical affordability challenge. Our district needs new leadership focused on results.
Lowering the cost of living starts with addressing the affordable housing crisis. As the owner of Friedman Properties in River North, I understand the barriers to building affordable housing. In Congress, I’ll champion legislation like the ROAD to Housing Act because making it easier to acquire and afford housing will have a ripple effect throughout the district – less crime, more community investment, and increasingly vibrant neighborhoods.
Lowering food costs – especially in underserved areas in the district like Austin and North Lawndale suffering from food deserts – requires supply chain reforms to prevent price manipulation, enhanced direct support programs like SNAP and WIC, and significant investment in local food systems. The recent opening of Austin’s 40 Acres Fresh Market shows how investing in local food systems has immediate positive impacts by improving access to healthy food, creating jobs, and fueling local economies.
Lowering health care costs requires building on the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act to expand Medicare drug negotiation, cap out-of-pocket costs for insulin and other essential medications across all insurance types, and allow Medicare to negotiate for medical devices and procedures. In the long-term a public option could market-test single-payer feasibility.
Achieving these more practical steps leads to long-term progress with affordability, education, and public safety issues. More affordable housing, cheaper groceries, and better health care make neighborhoods safer for working families, create good-paying jobs, and encourage economic investment.
What is one unique challenge your district faces and how do you plan to address it?
Illinois’ 7th Congressional District is plagued by lead contamination in the water lines running to and from homes and schools, poisoning our children every day. Given the straightforward solution – remove the lead pipes from the water system and replace them with safe alternatives – this crisis demonstrates a drastic misunderstanding of priorities for our community. The lead pipe epidemic is one of the causes of the 20-year mortality gap between downtown Chicago and the West Side, and we must act decisively to close that gap.
As Congressman, I would immediately take action to secure funding to replace lead pipes statewide. The Build Back Better bill provided some investment to solve the problem, but not nearly enough. Now, Trump and his Republicans are trying to divert funding for Illinois’ pipe replacement to other states. I will not stand by during this urgent crisis as thousands of my constituents continue to drink contaminated water at higher rates than their peers in almost any other congressional district in the country.
What do you think federal immigration reform should look like?
President Trump and ICE are brutalizing our neighbors, ripping families apart, kidnapping daycare workers, and using lethal force without regard for dignity and civil rights. ICE’s budget alone makes it the 15th largest standing military in the world – this is an egregious use of funds that promotes violence and directs federal dollars away from areas that need it, like education and health care.
As Congressman I will hold ICE leaders, agents, and all Trump-appointed public officials who participated in this violence and abuse accountable. We must require ICE agents to follow the same standards as local law enforcement, including prohibiting face masks, mandating body cameras and identification, and enforcing due process for ICE detainees.
I will also leverage subpoena power to investigate and prosecute wrongdoing by Trump officials. We must revive the rule of law, rolling back the falsehood that ICE agents and other DHS officials have complete immunity.
We need commonsense immigration reform, ensuring dignity, humanity, and civil rights are always prioritized, especially by DHS leadership. There must be wide pathways to legal status, including for DACA recipients and Dreamers, essential workers, long-term residents, and those seeking amnesty. We must also hire more asylum officers and immigration judges to reduce the significant case backlog. Immigration enforcement must be led with compassion and regard for civil rights, focusing on violent criminals and security threats, not broad sweeps and workplace raids. Illegal immigration is a civil offense, not a criminal offense, and undocumented immigrants must be given dignity and opportunity.
How should Congress address the rising costs of health care?
As Congressman for Illinois’ 7th District, I will fight to ensure residents of this district receive the affordable, quality health care they deserve through vital structural reforms like creating a single-payer option, which would in turn lower prescription drug costs, close gaps in accessibility and cost, and put money back into the pockets of hard-working Chicagoans. By addressing outdated structures and expanding access, we can begin to deliver health security to every resident, regardless of work or income. Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill, passed in July 2025, gutted vital government support like Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP that must be restored.
I am a pragmatist, and I only support solutions that I think I can achieve. Lowering health care costs through Medicare for All, while aspirational, isn’t realistic. Congress is struggling to even protect ACA subsidies without threatening a shutdown. We must build on the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act by expanding Medicare negotiation to cover more drugs, capping out-of-pocket costs for insulin and other essential medications across all insurance types. Medicare must also be able to negotiate for medical devices and procedures in addition to medications. In the long-term under better partisan conditions, an ambitious effort to create a public option could serve to market-test the feasibility of a single-payer system and allow for a smooth transition.
What approach would you take on tax policy and what is your top priority?
Let me be clear: the very wealthy should pay their fair share of taxes. The tax cuts in Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and 2025 OBBBA helped corporations and the wealthy while adding trillions to the national debt. Wealth inequality is at an all-time high and corporate profit increases are dwarfing median wage increases. We must restore the 35% corporate tax rate, raise the top marginal tax rate to 40% from 37%, patch the passthrough business deduction, and reverse all of the special-interest tax breaks that Republican lobbyists scored for their clients. Our government must step in to maintain quality of life for those who have been left behind.
I also support policies that ensure the very wealthy cannot permanently avoid taxes by borrowing against massive asset holdings instead of realizing a capital gain or taking income. When the ultra-wealthy use asset-backed loans to fund their lifestyles tax-free, it undermines the fairness of our tax system. We should pursue carefully designed reforms that tax this kind of wealth-based borrowing in a limited and enforceable way so that those at the very top pay a fair share without harming investment, small businesses, or retirement savings.
Is the House currently using its oversight powers in the way it should be? What areas of government need more or less oversight?
I am deeply concerned about the erosion of democratic institutions in this country, and Trump’s Republican Congress has stood by and watched as the administration wreaks havoc on our country. From surrendering their power to check the president to illegal and deeply destabilizing foreign military interventions to unaccountable masked men shooting American citizens in the street to illegal deportations without due process to ignoring federal court orders and outright attacking judges who rule against them, Congress must step up, but they continue to let our country down.
We need structural reforms that are strong enough to prevent partisan manipulation and to dramatically increase accountability. In Congress, I would support any effort to reclaim its constitutional authority, from limiting the abuse of executive orders to exercising more oversight over the executive departments.
What is the most pressing foreign policy issue facing the country and what role should the House play in dealing with it?
The Trump Administration’s foreign policy, whether toward China, Venezuela, Iran, Greenland, or Ukraine, has been erratic, destabilizing, and harmful to America’s role as a reliable ally and the greater dynamics of international diplomacy. His tariff policies have simultaneously created a global trade war, weakened our country, and strengthened China, empowering them to grow their sphere of influence. Congress is failing to exercise critical Constitutional powers to limit Trump’s ability to set tariffs, and we must seize back that power.
We must work with our allies, not against them, to contain the spread of market manipulation and intellectual property theft. We must protect our American innovation, securing valuable inventions that China frequently tries to manipulate. We must also maintain our lead in the growing artificial intelligence industry by limiting China’s access to cutting-edge chips. Dominating artificial intelligence is not just an economic priority, but imperative for our national security as autonomous weaponry emerges on the battlefield. We must maintain our public support for Taiwan’s security and autonomy while helping preserve stability in the South Pacific. In Congress, I would ensure that we work diligently to resume our position as the leader of the free world.
How do you view AI and the role the government should play in its regulation?
From research support to infrastructure development to permitting reform, the federal government has a significant role to play in the future of AI. With continued federal involvement, Congress can ensure the safe and ethical development of AI. If the government chooses not to get involved, our people will be more vulnerable to attacks on their privacy, employment, and civic values.
Further, AI poses a significant risk to children and teenagers, especially to their mental health. As AI tools become more common in our education system, the risk to minors increases. Congress must support and implement legislation that would force AI companies to develop protections for children and other vulnerable populations, such as age verification and self-harm claim reporting requirements.
We also have the responsibility to help workers adapt to a new, AI-powered economy with job training, education campaigns, and new labor standards. Finally, in Congress, I would ensure that emerging businesses in this new sector of our economy have the opportunity to grow. AI is leading to massive investments in our economy, and we must continue to support those investments.
How would you describe the current state of your party and what changes or new approaches would you like to see your party adopt?
Trust in the Democratic party has reached historic lows. Our career politicians have failed us, continually over promising and under delivering. I share that frustration with so many of the voters in Illinois’ 7th Congressional District. The Democratic party needs to recruit candidates from diverse backgrounds who can clearly communicate a forward-focused, proactive plan to improve the lives of Americans in the long term, instead of constantly being forced on the back foot. If we keep serving our voters more of the same, they will continue leaving the party en masse and taking their chances on rogue candidates like Trump.
Democrats also need to campaign differently. Instead of chasing fundraising goals or news headlines, candidates need to build community and make sure that voters feel connected to their representatives. My campaign has hosted dozens of community events where I have heard directly from voters about their concerns, priorities, and what they want out of their next representative. I spend my weekends knocking doors and calling voters myself. I am proud of the personal connections I have made with hundreds of voters in this district, and I vow to be a trustworthy, reliable, and accessible representative for every single one of my constituents.