Candidate Q&A
Why are you running?
As an emergency medicine doctor, I uniquely bring moral urgency and real-world experience to address this moment of crisis in Congress. With more than two decades caring for patients on the days that define their lives, I see the consequences of bad policy in the bodies and lives of my neighbors who come for care every day. I stand with and for people on the days that they most need help, helping them heal, find housing and holding hands when the worst has occurred. I work with folks who have nowhere else to go and no options, just as I do those who have had life shine on them until a moment of bad luck. Today we face policies that will take away insurance from 17M, that have led to rounding up our neighbours, that fracture our universities, that slow our public transportation. I’m running to solve the problems that bring patients to me sick and injured and then make it hard to recover.
I am pursuing public service at a time when health care, democracy, and human dignity are under attack. This moment requires someone who understands, who knows how to fix systems and has the moral clarity to fight for our lives. I’m running to make government work for the people it is supposed to serve, with competence, compassion, and courage.
What do you think is the most pressing issue facing your constituents and how do you plan on addressing it?
The most pressing issue in Illinois’ 7th District is the 20-year death gap between West Garfield Park and Streeterville. As a doctor who has served ER patients for more than 20 years, I’ve seen firsthand the human toll of inequity in where people live, learn, work, and play. Chronic illness, gun violence, opioid proliferation, and inaccessible mental healthcare create too many lives filled with suffering premature death on the South and West Sides. Then, when sick and injured working-class people seek care in healthcare systems destabilized by large numbers of uninsured patients and chronically low Medicaid reimbursement rates. Trump’s cuts mean thousands will lose Medicaid coverage during redeterminations and ACA coverage during open enrollment. To close this gap, we must protect people’s health by stabilizing their lives with the affordable housing, utilities, and food needed to flourish. These social determinants of health are the building blocks of our lives. We must reduce violence by first ensuring people are employed; jobs stop shootings. From there, funding community violence intervention, enacting Red Flag laws, and banning assault rifles and extended magazines will drive violence down and keep it low. Drug treatment and harm-reduction strategies will help reduce opioid deaths. Our bodies and lives are our most important endowment, and policy success should be measured by closing the death gap. Moral leadership means honoring our shared humanity when we are most vulnerable.
What is one unique challenge your district faces and how do you plan to address it?
The most pressing issue in Illinois’ 7th District is the 20-year death gap between West Garfield Park and Streeterville. As a doctor who has served ER patients for more than 20 years, I’ve seen firsthand the human toll of inequity in where people live, learn, work, and play. Chronic illness, gun violence, opioid proliferation, and inaccessible mental healthcare create too many lives filled with suffering premature death on the South and West Sides. Then, when sick and injured working-class people seek care in healthcare systems destabilized by large numbers of uninsured patients and chronically low Medicaid reimbursement rates. Trump’s cuts mean thousands will lose Medicaid coverage during redeterminations and ACA coverage during open enrollment. To close this gap, we must protect people’s health by stabilizing their lives with the affordable housing, utilities, and food needed to flourish. These social determinants of health are the building blocks of our lives. We must reduce violence by first ensuring people are employed; jobs stop shootings. From there, funding community violence intervention, enacting Red Flag laws, and banning assault rifles and extended magazines will drive violence down and keep it low. Drug treatment and harm-reduction strategies will help reduce opioid deaths. Our bodies and lives are our most important endowment, and policy success should be measured by closing the death gap. Moral leadership means honoring our shared humanity when we are most vulnerable.
What do you think federal immigration reform should look like?
I’ve worked with doctors across the city who have cared for folks teargassed and hurt by reckless ICE agents. Since September 8, 2025, anonymous agents have conducted broad sweeps using tactics that attack vulnerable and sow fear – this is how authoritarians wield power. If elected, I will fight for legislation affirming schools, hospitals, places of worship and courthouses must become forbidden sites of enforcement. These essential institutions must be protected so that nobody is afraid to go to court, take their child to school or seek health care. Quotas for arrest and deportation have fueled ICE’s rapid expansion and dangerous tactics. Quotas must be made illegal in the next Congress. The future must include an achievable path to citizenship for the hundreds of thousands of young people with DACA who have lived almost their entire lives in this country and strengthened it in countless ways. Comprehensive immigration reform that modernizes our system, keeps families together, welcomes talent and contributions from around the world, and ensures that long-standing members of our communities can live safely and lawfully will help us flourish. As will fix our asylum and refugee processes so they are both secure and humane—protecting people fleeing violence and persecution while processing cases more quickly, efficiently, and compassionately. These changes would ensure immigrants continue to find safety and opportunity in the United States while reducing wrongful detentions, and bring enforcement back into alignment with constitutional norms.
How should Congress address the rising costs of health care?
I’ve spent a lifetime in the ER caring for people who have nowhere else to go because of a fragmented and inadequate healthcare system. Healthcare should be universal, affordable and high quality. Right now medical bills are the most common reason Americans file for bankruptcy – even when they’re working full time and insured.These cost pressures will worsen as 17 million lose Medicaid and ACA coverage. As Americans age and new drugs hit the market, costs will spiral, our decision ahead will require smart administrative discipline to reduce costs without harming quality. If we push Medicare to pay for quality rather than volume we will reduce unnecessary testing, improve outcomes, and eliminate variation, saving billions annually. Scaling back costly Medicare Advantage programs that under deliver quality is another way to cut spending without harming access to care. Further, Congress needs to pass Medicare for All and similar universal care legislation that guarantees coverage for everyone, reduces administrative waste, and brings costs under control. This consolidation will allow the government to more effectively negotiate lower drug and device prices, attack administrative waste, and pay for outcomes that limit unnecessary and costly tests. When we help people with healthcare, they are no longer one illness away from financial disaster, we honor our humanity and relieve suffering.
What approach would you take on tax policy and what is your top priority?
For many of my ER patients, twenty dollars can make or break an entire month, while others in this district only worry when the stock market dips. The massive windfalls enjoyed by billionaires are not just the result of individual effort or luck; they are made possible by public investments in research, education, and infrastructure. In 1910, the wealthiest few held about 4% of the nation’s wealth; today, that same top tier holds roughly 12%. This distortion, combined with a tax code that has failed to keep pace, explains why public services are underfunded, segregation remains entrenched, and so many people are unable to move out of poverty. Progressive income tax with increases in marginal income that have kept pace with the vast income equality. I support reforming the payroll tax cap so higher earners contribute the same share as working families. Lifting the cap above $168,000, or holding it steady while reopening it above $350,000 so the wealthiest pay their share, would ensure fair taxation and long-term solvency. We can also incrementally increase the employer payroll tax above 6.2% for companies with extreme CEO-to-worker pay ratios. Congress must close the loopholes that allow extreme wealth to escape taxation while working people pay every paycheck. Fairness, fiscal responsibility, and public trust are the foundation of a tax system that works for everyone, and sustains a healthy democracy.
Is the House currently using its oversight powers in the way it should be? What areas of government need more or less oversight?
Under the leadership of Mike Johnson, the House has effectively abandoned its constitutional responsibility and allowed the executive branch to operate with little to no accountability. That is not normal, and it is not sustainable. The system of checks and balances is under real strain, and Congress is choosing not to act. We are seeing documented overreach, civil rights abuses, family separations by another name, mass detention practices, and the growing use of private contractors who profit from incarceration and enforcement. Congress should be investigating how enforcement decisions are being made, whether agencies are complying with the law, how federal funds are being spent, and whether constitutional protections are being violated. Oversight here is not about slogans or border theater. It is about abuse of power, misuse of taxpayer dollars, and real harm to human beings.
At the same time, the House has completely failed to exercise oversight over corruption tied directly to our government, including the Trump family’s financial dealings. The blending of public office and private profit during and after Donald Trump’s presidency raised serious red flags, from foreign business entanglements to influence peddling and self enrichment. Congress has both the authority and the obligation to investigate whether public power was used for personal gain and whether those practices are continuing to shape policy decisions today. No family connected to power should be treated as untouchable.
What is the most pressing foreign policy issue facing the country and what role should the House play in dealing with it?
China and the United States are the two largest economies, military spenders and trade partners. The relationship between our two countries affects jobs, prices, safety and our democratic values. I was on the front line during the COVID-19 Pandemic helping my sick and dying neighbors while isolated from my family to avoid infecting them. If we are not able to collaborate with China, the next time will be worse, partnership protects us. China’s influence in the 7th district extends to tariff policy that makes everyday goods unaffordable. Lastly, China’s policies toward Taiwan, civil liberties, mass surveillance and repression shapes global norms.
When we adhere to multilateral climate treaties and invest in human rights it expands the conversation with China beyond transactions and toward humanity and principles. Cooperation, communication and trust are how we’ll avoid the next pandemic. When Trump’s tariffs penalized American families and workers with high prices and uncertainty. When Trump attacked Venezuela and arrested President Maduro, it suggests that we do not embrace democratic principles and would be open to Chinese aggression toward Taiwan. Future American policies toward war, trade and democracy must include Congress as a co-equal and reflect a long view on stability.
How do you view AI and the role the government should play in its regulation?
AI represents a generational opportunity to increase productivity and improve lives. When I’m taking care of patients, AI succinctly organizes relevant data and literature, speeding my decisions and improving my care quality. Regulating AI should be no different than any other industry where producers are responsible for safety, risk disclosure and worker protection. We must ensure AI’s use in law enforcement and surveillance are limited by the protection of first amendment and privacy rights. And we’ve seen bias in AI applications like facial recognition, making clear that we need to ensure civil rights laws apply and fairness is guaranteed. Serious consequences must lead to accountability including legal liability in cases of foreseeable or preventable harm. Shared prosperity is a goal of all stable democracies and so governments must guarantee that AI doesn’t concentrate power, trample workers rights or let AI organizations avoid accountability for harm. As AI matures, safe and accountable tools that center humanity and democracy will unleash a new era of tools and solutions. AI has helped me become a better doctor to treat patients, but it will never replace a medical degree, the need for nurses and other specialists or the central goal of human connection and empathy in caregiving.
How would you describe the current state of your party and what changes or new approaches would you like to see your party adopt?
My party is at a crossroads.
Democrats say the right things about working people, health care, and democracy. We still have work to do in order to deliver results that reflect the urgency of the moment. Congress has powers of oversight, budget, subpoena and the floor. The Dems must fight when people’s lives are on the line, whether that’s protecting Medicaid, stopping corporate price gouging in health care, or holding administrations accountable when they ignore the law.
I’m a Democrat because I believe the government can reduce suffering and expand opportunity. I’m excited to deliver the needed moral clarity, urgency, curiosity and discipline that my patients, neighbors and family deserve. People are counting on us.