I'm running for governor because Illinois deserves a politics that puts people before parties and the common good before special interests. For too long, we've been told we have to choose between protecting life or pursuing justice, supporting workers or growing the economy, strengthening families or expanding opportunity. I reject that false choice.
I'm building a different kind of movement rooted in human dignity, solidarity, and local communities. That means standing for a consistent ethic of life, fighting for working families, restoring integrity to government, and creating an economy that serves people instead of corporations. Whether you live in Chicago or downstate, whether you've voted Republican, Democrat, or not at all, I want to prove that we can vote for all our values instead of settling for the lesser of two evils.
This campaign isn't about winning an election. It's about showing that Illinois can lead the nation with a politics of life, justice, labor, peace, family, community, democracy, and stewardship of our planet. If enough of us believe a better politics is possible, we can begin building it together.
Illinoisans face some of the highest combined state and local tax rates in the nation, squeezing the middle class and driving people out of the state. We will fix our broken fiscal climate by abandoning top-down corporate subsidies and shifting toward local wealth-building.
Implement a Strong Towns Approach to Infrastructure: Stop spending billions on massive, high-maintenance highway expansions that trap our municipalities in long-term debt. We will pivot state infrastructure funding toward fixing existing roads, investing in walkable town centers, and supporting low-cost, high-return local improvements. This keeps infrastructure liabilities low, protecting your local property tax base from skyrocketing.
Embrace an Ownership Economy: True economic freedom means everyday citizens—not just mega-corporations—own a piece of the pie. We will cut red tape and restructure state tax incentives to favor small family businesses, local farms, and worker-owned cooperatives. By keeping wealth local, we build a resilient economy that doesn't require a constant cycle of new state taxes to survive.
Illinois has a deeply rooted reputation for political insider deals. To break the gridlock and bypass special-interest lobbyists, we need to hand real decision-making power back to the people.
Institutionalize Deliberative Democracy: Following proven global frameworks from the OECD, we will establish Citizen Assemblies to address our most complex, polarizing state issues (like pension reform and budgetary structural deficits). These are panels of everyday Illinoisans, selected by civic lottery to match the exact demographics of our state. They will be given the time, access to independent experts, and resources to deliberate deeply and deliver binding policy recommendations to the legislature—putting the public back in control of the government.
Rents and mortgages are eating up far too much of the average Illinoisan's paycheck. We need to treat housing as a fundamental social foundation for strong families, not a speculative asset for Wall Street hedge funds.
Expand Social Housing and Community Land Trusts: We will pioneer state-backed financing programs to help municipalities and non-profits build social housing—high-quality, mixed-income developments owned by the public or the community rather than private landlords. We will incentivize the creation of Community Land Trusts (CLTs) to take residential land off the speculative market permanently, keeping homeownership affordable for working-class families across generations.
Modernizing Property Wealth with a Land Value Tax: Illinois does not currently have a standalone Land Value Tax. Instead, our real estate market relies on a traditional, unified property tax system that taxes both the raw land and the improvements (buildings and structures) together. This legacy model effectively penalizes people who build or maintain housing while rewarding speculative land hoarders. We will champion a shift toward an LVT model—which taxes the unimproved value of land while reducing the tax burden on actual buildings—to encourage development and limit real estate speculation.
For decades, political campaigns have treated the abortion debate as a zero-sum wedge issue designed to polarize voters. It is time for a new way forward that moves past the single-issue trap and focuses on common-ground, pro-family, and pro-woman policies. We need to embrace a consistent ethic of life—historically championed right here in Illinois by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin—which recognizes that every human being is worthy of dignity and respect from conception to natural death.
Eliminate the Economic Push Factors: True advocacy for life means making sure no woman ever feels forced into an abortion due to financial desperation, lack of healthcare, or career instability. We will protect society's most vulnerable by opposing actions that undermine human life—including abortion, assisted suicide, and the death penalty—while simultaneously building a robust social safety net that empowers women to choose life.
Make Birth Free and Support Parenting Students: We will champion the "Make Birth Free" initiative, creating a state framework to eliminate the cost burden of prenatal, childbirth, and postnatal care for families. Furthermore, we will establish comprehensive state protections and resource networks for pregnant and parenting students and workers, ensuring they never have to choose between welcoming a child and finishing their education or keeping their job.
Every person bears the image of God and deserves the opportunity to flourish. We recognize that historic and ongoing discrimination has denied many Illinoisans equal access to freedom, prosperity, and dignity, and we are committed to removing those barriers.
We support targeted reinvestment in historically marginalized communities, including the work of the state's African Descent-Citizens Reparations Commission and local reparative initiatives, with an emphasis on community ownership of the wealth these investments create.
We will honor treaty obligations, support voluntary Indigenous land restoration and collaborative land management, and continue correcting historic injustices.
We believe American and Illinois history should fully reflect the contributions and experiences of all people, fostering a richer understanding of our shared story.
Finally, we will protect equal access to voting, the courts, housing, education, and other civic institutions so that every Illinoisan can participate fully in public life without institutional barriers.
We believe every migrant and refugee possesses inherent human dignity. While immigration is primarily a federal responsibility, Illinois has a duty to welcome the stranger, defend human rights, and promote policies that balance secure, orderly immigration with compassion and justice.
We will oppose militarized federal immigration enforcement that terrorizes communities, defend state protections such as the Welcoming City Ordinance, and ensure state and local resources are never used to separate families or violate civil liberties.
We support ending for-profit immigration detention, strengthening oversight of detention facilities, and expanding resources for immigration courts so asylum and visa claims are resolved fairly and promptly.
We will extend workplace protections to all workers regardless of immigration status, crack down on employers who exploit undocumented labor, reform temporary work visa programs to protect both immigrant and domestic workers, and reject economic systems that profit from exploitation.
Finally, we support a path to citizenship for Dreamers and law-abiding long-term undocumented residents, while investing in English, civics, and community integration programs and maintaining a generous asylum policy for those fleeing persecution.
Safety and educational success don't happen in a vacuum—they are the natural results of strong, interconnected communities and stable families.
Whole-Life Family Support: A healthy state starts with healthy homes. We will champion pro-family economic policies, including localized childcare networks, workplace flexibilities, and community-based health initiatives to support parents and children at every stage of life.
Safety Through Built Environments: Drawing again from Strong Towns principles, we will design our communities to be inherently safer. Speed-calming street designs, vibrant public squares, and walkable neighborhood layouts naturally reduce crime by putting more "eyes on the street" and fostering deep neighborhood connections.
Caring for our environment shouldn't be a partisan battleground. It is a profound moral and ethical obligation to protect the world we inhabit and preserve it for future generations. True advocacy for families and a consistent culture of life must include defending the vulnerable—especially the unborn, infants, and children—from the toxic effects of pollution and environmental degradation.
Defending Health by Eliminating Environmental Toxins: Safe families require clean air and drinkable water. We will fast-track the replacement of toxic lead service lines that still contaminate drinking water in communities across Illinois, from urban neighborhoods to legacy industrial and rural towns. By strictly enforcing water and air quality standards, we can drastically reduce the triggers for childhood asthma, developmental delays, and prenatal health complications.
A Just, Community-Led Energy Transition: As we transition toward a cleaner energy economy, we must reject top-down corporate mandates that leave working-class communities behind. We will support localized, decentralized energy projects—such as community solar and regional clean energy cooperatives—that keep utility wealth inside Illinois towns rather than siphoning it off to Wall Street energy conglomerates.
Supporting Legacy Energy Workers: True stewardship means honoring the dignity of labor. We will dedicate state resources to ensure that workers in legacy energy sectors (such as coal and natural gas) receive robust training, placement, and prevailing-wage guarantees in modern infrastructure, brownfield reclamation, and clean energy manufacturing fields.
Have questions or suggestions? I would love to hear from you!
Campaign Headquarters
916 Silver Spur Rd, Rolling Hills Estates, CA 90274