Donavan McKinney

Abortion / Contraception We know that reproductive freedom is not just a healthcare issue — it’s an economic and racial justice issue, too. Republicans’ forced birth agenda forces families into situations they cannot afford, while the same politicians cut the critical funding to Medicare, Medicaid and SNAP benefits that lessen financial burdens on families. In Congress, I will push to pass bills like the EACH Act, which would repeal discriminatory laws such as the Hyde amendment. By putting essential abortion care out of reach for marginalized and low-income communities, these kinds of laws only exist to punish people for being poor. Housing I support a national homes guarantee that would give every Michigander safe, sustainable, and permanently affordable housing. With less than the money we spend on the Pentagon’s budget every year, we could change millions of lives. We could build 8.5 million new public housing units, fund local development of 3.5 million new private, permanent affordable housing projects, and fund billions for public housing repairs, climate resiliency, and critical infrastructure upgrades throughout the country. In order to do so, we must repeal the Faircloth Amendment that has put a federal limit on public housing spending for 25 years. Healthcare As a former leader within SEIU Healthcare Michigan, I know our families cannot afford anything less than Medicare for All, which would ensure everyone in this country has healthcare — no matter their employment status, zip code, race, gender, sexuality, or disability. Medicare for All would include coverage for dental, vision, mental health, reproductive health and abortion care. It would also include community-based long term support services, ensuring hundreds of thousands of disabled people are able to finally get the home care they need. Environment / Energy It’s time to break the cycle and understand that we need a solution as large as the climate crisis itself. A Green New Deal transitioning to 100% clean and renewable energy, would protect our planet’s future and create millions of good-paying green union jobs in Michigan. It’s also a more efficient and sustainable source of energy that will lower energy requirements and consumer costs, while improving our community’s health and cleaning our air & water. And one critical aspect of that for us in metro Detroit is investment to build and expand public transit, so people have the freedom and mobility to get to work, go to the supermarket, and pick up their kids without having to buy a car and pay some of the highest car insurance rates in the country. We deserve choices that corporations won’t let us have. We’re paying the price for this crisis built by greedy CEOs — but they’re the ones who should be paying to fix it. Government Reform If you’ve ever wondered why our politicians aren’t fighting for us, why they don’t seem to understand the urgency of our crises, or why they look the other way when we call for our basic needs to be met — it’s because of our broken campaign finance system. Because of the Supreme Court’s disastrous Citizens United decision 15 years ago, our current system gives corporations, millionaires, and billionaires the power to purchase politicians and their inaction with unlimited dark money. None of us can compete with millions of dollars from CEOs — and we shouldn’t have to. Our democracy should be by and for the people, but as long as our elections are auctions for the highest bidder, the wealthy few’s wallets will be more powerful than the voices of the majority. Foreign Policy In Congress, I will oppose the bottomless and unconditional funding of weapons and bombs because we cannot keep funding human rights violations and war crimes with our taxpayer dollars. Instead, those dollars can be better spent here at home on urgent needs in our communities — from aging infrastructure to housing to ensuring our veterans get the job opportunities and healthcare they have earned. Criminal Justice / Public Safety I am committed to doing all that I can in Congress to transform the criminal justice system. That includes ending cash bail, because we should not be jailing people simply because they are poor. It includes reallocating funding to invest in social, health, and rehab services so that we are able to reach people who are at risk of incarceration before they end up stuck in the system. It also includes reforming sentencing guidelines, ending the school-to-prison pipeline by investing in quality public education and wrap-around services for all our youth, ending qualified immunity, and much more. Abortion / Contraception Abortion rights have been gutted and continue to be under attack by the far-right across this country. Despite the disastrous Dobbs decision from the right-wing extremists on the Supreme Court, Washington cannot stop fighting to protect our reproductive freedom and fight back against the continued GOP attacks on our abortion rights. We must codify abortion rights at the federal level and particularly protect access to medication abortion nationwide as Republicans focus their attacks on gutting access even in states that have protected abortion care like Michigan. Immigration We need a pathway to citizenship for all immigrants, tackle the bureaucracy that makes immigrating to this country so difficult, reform our asylum process, shut down for-profit detention centers, and not turn our back on refugees fleeing danger and disaster. Foreign Policy The Pentagon has the largest budget of any federal government agency. As a result we spent nearly 1 trillion in taxpayer dollars every year to line the pockets of corporate defense contractors, and to wage endless wars abroad. You know what doesn’t cost a trillion dollars? Leading with diplomacy, our nation’s greatest foreign policy asset — not bombs and weapons. Education I’m going to Washington to put federal dollars back in our public schools; to invest in paying our teachers higher wages, nationwide universal free school lunches, expanding early child care resources, providing universal free pre-kindergarten, and broadening the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to fully fund equitable education for all children. We also need better federal funding for youth programming so every child can benefit from the community centers, mentorship, and programming opportunities that saved my life years ago. Education We cannot settle for that. Every family deserves a well-funded, fully-invested public school in their community that they are eager to send their kids to. We should not have seniors graduating high school without knowing how to read, and we should not have some of the lowest literacy rates in the country. This is not a reflection of our people, but a reflection of our politicians’ refusal to prioritize the federal investments we need to support our kids. Taxes / Budget I’m fighting for all my union family and for every worker to have the right to form a union, earn a living wage, and be able to provide for their family. That starts with making the ultra-wealthy like Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and Congressman Shri Thanedar pay their fair share — like the rest of us working people already do. Raising taxes on billionaires and corporations could fund crucial investments our community needs for housing, education, clean air & water, fair paying jobs and healthcare. While billionaires have rigged the system to create massive income equality in Michigan and nationwide, everyone deserves money in their pocket through a universal basic income. Don’t let anyone tell you we can’t fund our people’s most basic needs while the Elon Musks of America have managed to pay 0 in income taxes. Education But federal investments in quality, public education cannot stop at high school. All public colleges, universities, and trade schools should be tuition-free and all existing student loan debt should be canceled. Pursuing a higher education of any kind should not be a financial death sentence for anyone. Housing In Detroit, over 50% of households are renters. We need to protect all tenants with better federal protections including nationwide rent control to cap annual rent hikes from corporate real estate conglomerates, just-cause eviction protections to stop baseless evictions, federal right to counsel legislation so every renter facing eviction has a lawyer, and strengthening tenant unions so tenants have the power to defend themselves against greedy and predatory landlords. We must ensure that rent is affordable and accessible to everyone, and that renters aren’t price-gouged by greedy landlords who exploit our housing shortage and the economic insecurity of our community in order to increase their own profits.