Blueprint for a Better America
Reforming Government for Working Families
I've spent a year in Congress, and it was long enough to see that things in Washington don’t work the way they should. Elected officials in Washington have wasted too much time gridlocked in a partisan divide that is getting deeper by the day. Instead of being a voice for the good people and communities they represent, they are repeatedly distracted by short-sighted priorities and trying to score cheap political points. Meanwhile, working families across the country, including in our home state of Michigan, are struggling to get by. The people want change, and so do I.
My Blueprint for a Better America is about getting back to basics: ensuring the federal government works for the people, not the other way around. It tackles the issues that matter most to everyday Americans — from making health care and housing more affordable, to reforming a political system that feels rigged for insiders and ensuring our foreign policy serves the interests of the American people.
Change requires action and action delivers results. Let’s get to work.
Restoring Trust in Government
Making Government Serve the People, Not Special Interests
For too long, Washington has operated under a different set of rules where career politicians enrich themselves, special interests call the shots, and working families are left behind. It's time to restore accountability and tackle Washington's broken culture head-on by removing conflicts of interest, banning members of Congress from trading individual stocks, imposing term limits, and requiring a balanced budget that respects taxpayer dollars. This is the key to returning power back where it belongs — with the American people, not the elites.
- Taking Action to Restore Trust in Government
- Helped Introduce the Stop Insider Trading Act to ban stock trading by members of Congress.
- Introduced the Make it Count Act to limit congressional redistricting to once every 10 years, after each census, and require that only U.S. citizens are counted toward district apportionment and electoral votes.
- Introduced the Supermajority Statehood Amendment to require a two-thirds supermajority in both chambers of Congress to add a new state to the union.
- Co-sponsored the Keep the Nine Amendment to require that the Supreme Court of the United States be composed of nine justices.
- Co-sponsored the Unauthorized Spending Accountability Act to automatically phase out any federal spending on programs that aren’t explicitly authorized by Congress after three years.
- Introduced the Judicial Term Limits Amendment to limit federal judges, including Supreme Court justices, to serving a 20-year term.
Reviving the American Dream
Helping Families Afford Homes in Mid-Michigan
Michiganders know how hard it is to afford to keep the roof over their heads. Working families are paying an average of $16,016 annually in hidden regulatory costs and the average age of a first-time homebuyer is now 40 years old. This is all while families are being priced out by private equity and foreign investors who buy up single family homes and treat them like a stock portfolio. We need to make lasting changes that will finally put Americans first in the housing market. This means knocking down barriers to boost construction, bringing more first-time home buyers into the market, and taking on predatory special interests who are driving up costs. Every American who works hard should be able to afford the home that’s right for them and their family, and it’s long past time we make real reforms that will make that possible again.
- Taking Action to Restore the American Dream
- Introduced the Home Affordability for Guard and Reserve Act to lower costs by expanding eligibility for VA home loans to more members of the National Guard and Armed Forces Reserve.
- Introduced the American Dream Act to put more starter homes on the market so people can afford to buy their first home.
- Introduced the Time to Heal Act to eliminate the requirement that widowed spouses must sell their home within two years of their spouse’s death to receive the $500,000 exemption on capital gains taxes for married couples, rather than the $250,000 exemption for single sellers.
- Co-sponsored the Uplifting First-Time Homebuyers Act to increase the IRA first-time homebuyer exemption to allow families to withdraw up to $50,000 from an IRA without owing the 10% early withdrawal penalty.
- Co-sponsored the Housing Supply Framework Act to require the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to develop best practices playbooks to help state and local governments cut red tape to build more housing.
- Co-sponsored the Families First Housing Act to prevent large corporations from buying up homes from federal lending agencies before families have a chance.
- Co-sponsored the First-Time Homebuyer Empowerment Act to enable homebuyers to use their leftover college savings in a 529 account to make a down payment on a first home.
Making Health Care Affordable Again
Lowering Costs for Working Families
Health care costs are crushing mid-Michigan families. Since the big insurance companies and their lobbyists wrote the "Affordable Care Act", those companies have hiked premiums and denied more claims while raking in record profits. Michigan patients need serious reforms that tackle our broken system head-on and take concrete steps to cut costs. This means exploring all options to increase transparency, expand access to affordable health savings accounts that bypass insurance companies, and take on insurers who continue to profit off bankrupting Americans. Reforming our broken health care system won’t be easy, but it's the key to lowering costs and putting patients first.
Recalibrating American Foreign Policy
Ending Endless Wars and Promoting Peace Through Strength
For decades, politicians sent soldiers like me into endless wars with no clear mission while other countries refused to pull their weight. A change of course is long overdue. Americans want a new vision for foreign policy that relies on clear objectives and a real understanding of the total human cost of any war. After 9/11, we lost just over 7,000 American service members in conflicts across the Middle East. In the decades since that war, we’ve lost 30,000 more troops and Global War on Terrorism-era veterans to suicide. That is the total human cost of war, not just those lost on the battlefield. It’s time to repeal open-ended war authorizations and replace them with defined goals and responsible limits. Our security relies on Congress taking bold action like this to deter our enemies, strengthen our armed forces, improve partnerships with allies, and keep our troops out of endless wars.
Reforming Campaign Finance
Putting Governing Before Campaigning
America's campaign spending is out of control. I firmly believe in protecting free speech and vigorous campaigns, but I also believe that has to be balanced with no letting out-of-state donors unfairly determine our elections. An astounding $16 billion was spent on federal campaigns in 2024 running ads that nobody likes anyway. Congress needs to find a way to balance free speech, vigorous debate, and spirited campaigns without inviting undue influence over election outcomes to out-of-state donors. Let’s let candidates focus on serving constituents and solving problems — not chasing donations.
If you have a government reform idea you’d like to see implemented, please fill out the form below to share your ideas.