As a Marine Infantry Officer commanding a rifle platoon, I lived by a central credo: “officers eat last.” That principle—that leadership is a sacred duty—has been constant in my work. During law school, I helped an Afghan interpreter, threatened by the Taliban for his work with our troops, safely reach the U.S. My work helped pass a Connecticut statute that eased the veteran-unemployment crisis. As a lawyer, I fight to ensure victims of negligence and misconduct receive justice. My Yale Law School training taught me that details matter: for good or for ill, the law has a tremendous impact on real people’s lives. I’ve taken all these lessons to the General Assembly. There, my attention to detail, teamwork, and uncompromising defense of our values have helped me be a leader on fighting gun violence, protecting women’s and LGBTQ rights, strengthening our democracy, bolstering our economy, and many more issues.

I have plans for much legislation in various spheres, including protecting reproductive rights, improving public safety and gun-violence prevention, and others. But among these, two top priorities are: the economy and transportation.

We must continue to ensure our state takes every measure to attack inflation and increase economic opportunities for middle-class individuals and working families across our state. This year’s budget did just that: we passed the largest tax relief ($650 million+) in state history, including a child tax credit, a long-term suspension of the gas tax, ending the tax on retirement income, cutting property taxes on retirees, and delivered more than $200 million for a new Westhill High School, as well as hundreds of millions of dollars more for Stamford school-construction projects over the next 25 years. We also must continue to invest in our communities and adhere to the fiscally responsible measures we’ve put in place to pay down of our long-term obligations, which will save us more than $450 million per year over the next 25 years.

Additionally, we must modernize our transportation infrastructure. Thanks to our federal delegation’s work to pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Connecticut will receive more than $6 billion for transportation projects over the next ten years. We must work constantly to ensure that those funds are spent efficiently and effectively in ways that maximally improve economic growth and quality of life for our residents, and that we act to secure every dollar of competitive funding we can for our state and Stamford.

I wholeheartedly support amending the Connecticut Constitution to permit early voting and no-excuse absentee voting. In fact, my bill to expand absentee-voting access was passed into law this year and will allow commuters, healthcare workers, and those caring for someone who is sick or disabled to vote absentee. I have been a leader in passing resolutions for amendments to allow early voting and no-excuse absentee voting. We should do everything we can to reduce and eliminate obstacles to voting. Our democracy can only truly reflect our will when everyone makes their voice heard. That means we must ensure that no condition—age, income, employment, disability, or otherwise—will be a barrier. I will continue to fight to make voting safe, easy, and secure for every eligible voter in our state.

As co-founder and co-chair of the General Assembly’s Reproductive Rights Caucus, I authored and led passage of the Reproductive Freedom Defense Act, a nation-leading law expanding abortion access and protecting CT healthcare providers, residents, and people who come here for abortion care from out-of-state legal attack by anti-choice states. This law has served as a blueprint for states across the country seeking to protect the right to choose for their residents, and legal commentators have called it “the gold standard for pro-choice legislation in the post-Roe era.” But the battle to protect women’s rights and healthcare is far from over. National Republicans plan to pass a national abortion ban should they regain control over Congress. I will fight tirelessly, through both legislative and legal channels, to defend and protect the rights of women—and every person—in our state to access the reproductive healthcare they need, including safe, legal abortion care, without obstruction.