Communities like mine, the third poorest congressional district in the country, can’t wait any longer for meaningful change.

We turned out in record numbers to vote Trump out. And with COVID-19 cases and poverty rates soaring, we must now move forward together to tackle the issues facing our communities and build a future where everyone can thrive.

That’s why our team has been working tirelessly in Congress to enact our progressive governing agenda, centered on justice and people’s well-being.

If you’d like to check out more about what we’ve been up to the past few months, please read the email below (or this blog post, an adaptation of the email).

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Together, we can build and use our growing progressive power to not only push back against a system that’s killing us, but also build solutions. We aren’t just resisting the status quo, we’re transforming it, together.

As we enter the last month of 2020, the toll of the pandemic and this year’s struggles feel massive. Thank you for being part of our Squad during this tough year.

We’ve accomplished so much together, including voting Trump out of office and ensuring that all of our votes are counted.

Now all eyes are on Georgia as the state prepares for January’s Senate runoff elections, which will determine whether Republicans continue their Senate majority—or our progressive policies can become law. Please sign up for text parties (every Tuesday at 6 pm ET) or phonebank sessions (every Tuesday-Thursday) with our allies at the Working Families Party. Thank you!

In addition to expanding the electorate and getting out the vote this election season, we’ve been busy over the past few months in Congress. So I wanted to update you on our team’s work towards people-centered COVID relief and environmental, racial, and social justice (see below).

Last week, our growing Squad of progressive Congressmembers rallied at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, DC with climate justice groups—calling on President-elect Biden to treat climate change and environmental racism like the urgent crises they are. Movement demands include Biden supporting the Green New Deal and barring anyone with fossil fuel industry ties from his cabinet appointees.

Centering people in urgent COVID-19 relief

Nearly 270,000 Americans are dead from COVID-19. We’re in an ongoing national tragedy—one which the right-wing has worsened by denying there’s even a problem.

With COVID-19 cases and poverty rates soaring, especially for communities of color, it’s time for urgent action. According to the CDC’s study of millions of patient records, Black people have been twice as likely to die from the illness than white people—and Black, Latinx, and indigenous people have been hospitalized with the virus 4 times more than white people have.

It’s clear these crises are interconnected and are only worsening. While the Republican-controlled Senate and the Trump administration have blocked COVID-19 relief, we’ve been:

Protecting frontline workers through direct corporate pressure: In addition to advocating for direct federal financial support, I’ve been joining with workers demanding safe workplaces during the pandemic, including nursing home workers and Amazon employees. With new reports that nearly 20,000 Amazon workers have gotten COVID, Rep. Debbie Dingell and I are keeping up our fight to hold one of the richest corporations in the world accountable.
Making banking accessible for poorer communities: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and I recently introduced the Public Banking Act, to open doors for marginalized people who have been systematically shut out of our nation’s private banks. People in my district had trouble with the $1,200 stimulus checks this spring, with many relying on predatory check cashing companies.
Pulling city and state governments out of this financial crisis: I’ve led the fight in Congress for much-needed state and local financial relief, including securing funding in House-passed relief bills and forcing the Federal Reserve to adjust their lending programs to financially support more local governments, rather than financially propping up corporate polluters. The Public Banking Act is the latest effort to secure the aid state and local governments need.
Ensuring incarcerated people’s safety: People stuck behind bars during this pandemic are facing a potential COVID death sentence, which is why months ago I introduced the Dismantle Mass Incarceration for Public Health Act along with my colleagues Reps. Ayanna Pressley, Barbara Lee, and others. In Michigan, COVID-19 cases in prisons have hit an all-time high, action is needed. We must urgently pass this bill to free people now—and we must listen to Black community members still marching and crying out to live.
Building support for a roadmap to an America that works for all of us, including essential COVID relief: I signed onto the Working Families Party’s People’s Charter, and you can check it out and sign onto it, too!

If you want to help us address our interconnected crises, please chip into our work now.

Fighting the Department of Homeland Security and ICE’s abuses

Three years after the Trump administration’s policy of separating immigrant families at the border, nearly 600 children’s parents have not yet been found. And a recent investigation also revealed the intentional cruelty behind the child separation policy: Justice Department leaders explicitly told U.S. attorneys that “we need to take away children,” including infants.

Meanwhile, immigrants have recently reported horrific human rights violations within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), ranging from mass forced hysterectomies of immigrant women to torturing Cameroonian asylum seekers to force them to sign their own deportation orders.

We have been shining a light on these abuses, and will hold the DHS accountable for every human rights abuse it has inflicted on our immigrant communities during the reign of this racist, xenophobic President and his administration. Recent actions include:

Addressing systemic racism and oppression

The largest-ever uprisings in our country’s history have not ended: People in Detroit and cities across the country are still marching in defense of Black lives and calling for shifts in funding away from police and into community needs.

In majority-Black Detroit, the City is suing Detroit Will Breathe protesters, an unthinkable assault on people’s constitutional rights. I spoke out in the Detroit Free Press, explaining I cannot in good conscience remain silent as a whole movement centered on my Black neighbors’ ability to live and thrive is being demonized.

And with Trump getting more votes than he did in 2016, it’s clear that our country must urgently address our long-standing history of racism and hatred, in order to root it out today. As part of that process, we have been:

Addressing racial and socioeconomic segregation in our nation’s schools: The House passed my amendment to the Strength in Diversity Act, which would reduce racial and socioeconomic segregation in our nation’s schools. As a graduate of Detroit Public Schools, some of the most heavily segregated in the country, I know how urgently we need equitable educational opportunities for all children.
Restoring and expanding protections of America’s most important civil rights laws: We introduced the Justice for All Act, historic legislation that pushes back against decades of conservative court rulings to restore the original intent of our civil rights laws, which have been significantly undermined by conservative court rulings over the years. If passed, it would combat intentional and unintentional discrimination against people based on race, color, religion, sex, disability, age, or national origin—and it would clarify the definition of “sex” to include sexual orientation, pregnancy, gender identity, sex stereotypes, or any sex-related traits. Because no matter how you identify, our civil rights laws must protect you.
Preventing racist auto insurance discrimination: Sen. Corey Booker recently introduced a bill in the Senate to match my and Rep. Watson Coleman’s Preventing Auto Insurance Discrimination (PAID) Act in the House—which would end structural racism in the auto insurance industry. For years the industry has been using socio-economic, non-driving factors in determining auto insurance premiums, such as education, employment status, credit score, zip code, and homeownership status. My district suffers from some of the highest auto insurance rates in the country, so I just co-introduced the PAID Study Act to require a study demonstrating the impacts of such discrimination.
Expanding voting rights to people involved in the criminal justice system: I co-introduced the Removing Monetary Barriers to Voting Act, which would prevent states from barring formerly incarcerated individuals from voting due to debts owed through the criminal justice system (a current practice in 30 states, including Florida).
Holding Trump’s Census Bureau accountable for its undercounting of marginalized communities: The Census is essential for redistricting processes and for allocating billions of dollars in funding for schools, hospitals, and other essential services. The Trump administration cut short an already-rushed and under-resourced counting process, which seemed to specifically undercut cities like Detroit. Amid reports that census workers across the country were ordered to falsify data, I led Michigan Senators and Representatives in a letter to the U.S. Census Bureau Director to ensure an accurate count of Michigan residents in the 2020 Census.

Tweet about joint press conference on the 2020 Census with me and Detroit’s mayor.

Can you chip in today so we can continue the fight for justice and equity?

Environmental justice

As I told President-elect Biden when he visited Michigan, I would of course help him get elected (which we did!), but I may not be his favorite member of Congress because I’m operating on a more urgent timeline than he is. Residents of my district don’t have any time to wait for meaningful action to address corporate pollution and the climate crisis. We need bold action like the Green New Deal now.

We’ll keep you posted as we ramp up pressure toward the end of this congressional session, and at the beginning of the next session come January.

Thank you! And don’t forget, if you want to get involved in Georgia’s Senate runoffs so we can win the Senate and actually pass the bills we’re working on into law, please check out the Working Families Party’s text parties and phonebank opportunities.