Welcome back to the Data for Progress newsletter, your weekly update on our research, blog posts, and memos.

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In the Democratic Party, healthcare has often divided progressives and centrists on how to best make healthcare accessible to all Americans. That's why we partnered with Be a Hero, led by Ady Barkan, to develop a proposal for a Public Infrastructure for Care, a roadmap that gives the Democratic Party a plan to achieve healthcare as a human right.

Our proposal makes it possible for every American to easily access the care they need by building hundreds of new publicly-owned hospitals, including in rural areas which have suffered disproportionately from increased hospital closures.

We also call upon the Biden administration to use the U.S. government’s purchasing power to manufacture affordable pharmaceuticals and medical technology. And in the process, our plan creates millions of new jobs: we’re pushing for the U.S. to hire thousands of new doctors and nurses for the public interest by establishing a new community health corps, and to allow doctors who trained overseas to practice in the U.S.

This is a highly popular way that Biden can create jobs, grow our economy, and address healthcare shortages in both rural and urban communities. As the Biden Administration works to pass historic investments in the care economy through the American Jobs Plan, we are pushing for them to implement these crucial proposals to strengthen our healthcare infrastructure. Voters trust Democrats far more than Republicans when it comes to delivering on healthcare — that means we have a responsibility to deliver, and a public infrastructure for care is the path to doing so.

Here are some other highlights from DFP over the past week:

We Launched Our Second Green New Deal Slate

We’re incredibly excited to share our 2nd slate of Green New Deal local candidates in partnership with Lead Locally! These climate champions running in municipal and state-level races are leading the path towards a thriving clean energy economy, facing down the fossil fuel industry and corrupt utility companies. Here they are:

Diana Saleh for Arlington City Council, District 3

Hosanna Yemiru for Dallas City Council, District 11

These candidates are running in spring municipal elections, competitive primaries, and open seats, often against establishment-backed incumbents. They need our small-dollar donations to win. Donate to the whole slate here.

Yang Leading Tight NYC Mayoral Race

This week we released brand-new polling of the NYC Mayoral Race showing that it’s anyone’s game, but Andrew Yang is in the lead with 26% of voters supporting him — double the percentage of voters (13%) supporting the next highest polling candidate, Eric Adams. As our executive director Sean McElwee said, “There’s going to be lots of room for persuasion in this race, but it is very clear to me that Andrew Yang comes in in the strongest position.”

That’s not all of DFP’s work in the Big Apple this week! We also released polling with Our City showing that when it comes to policy positions in the mayoral race, NYC voters are firmly in the progressive camp. Some highlights from our findings:

53% of NYC voters want funds moved away from the NYPD:

63% of voters want a candidate who supports a wealth tax in New York City in order to fund pandemic recovery:

And 69% of voters are more likely to support a candidate who implements a plan preventing housing from costing more than 30% of a New Yorker’s income:

Voters Strongly Support Protections for Tenants

In new polling with The Appeal, we find that voters strongly support protecting tenants from the enduring harm of eviction records. 64% of voters support making it easier to seal or expunge records, 66% of voters don’t want landlords to hold eviction records against tenants when making lending decisions, and 72% of voters support making it illegal for employers to ask job applicants if they’ve ever been evicted.

How We Can Use Infrastructure Spending to Push for Pro-Housing Policies

In new polling with Vox, we found that a majority of likely voters say they’d support withholding federal money from cities and states that prevent more affordable types of housing from being built. 54% of likely voters support withholding infrastructure money from local governments unless they stop making it illegal to build multifamily housing.