No family should have to choose between paying rent and putting food on the table. Jeffrey will introduce legislation to increase affordable housing stock, scale permanent supportive housing, and grow eviction prevention funds that keep families housed. Jeffrey knows housing is a human right and affordable, stable housing is as much a public health intervention as it is common sense housing policy.

Jeffrey will also work with local governments, housing authorities, and community developers to fast-track new affordable units. He will expand legal aid and protections so residents aren’t forced into homelessness over temporary financial hardships. By building partnerships with nonprofits, small developers, and health systems, Jeffrey will push for a state-wide housing strategy that prevents displacement, allows neighborhoods to flourish, and reduces the downstream costs of homelessness on community services.

Jeffrey will not allow Big Tech to bring data centers to our neighborhoods to deplete our water supply, drive up utility costs, pollute the air we breathe, or clear local forests for a handful of permanent jobs. Instead, Jeffrey will work with municipalities, school districts, and local organizations to repurpose vacant buildings into community centers that give our youth, and our whole community, safe, welcoming places to gather. 

He will also champion investments in green spaces, public libraries, after-school programming, and local arts initiatives, the public infrastructure that makes neighborhoods vibrant and resilient. By prioritizing community building and rejecting extractive development, Jeffrey will foster stronger social ties, improve mental and physical health, and build a district where community, not corporate influence, shapes our future. 

The cost of childcare is crushing working families. A single mother with two children, like Jeffrey’s mother when he was growing up, can face monthly childcare bills north of $1,600. This amount often exceeds housing costs and makes basic stability impossible. Jeffrey will implement free childcare for every Pennsylvanian until the start of kindergarten, ensuring high-quality early learning and care for all families. He will also raise wages for childcare workers and public school educators, many of whom currently live in poverty.

Roughly 125,000 children are born in PA, annually. To help new parents get a healthy start, Jeffrey will create a Keystone Baby Basket program: a free newborn starter kit that includes essential supplies and a resource guide to community services. At an estimated cost of $20 million a year, this is a small drop in the $50 billion state budget. These investments support early childhood development, save parents money, and give families a fairer chance at a hopeful future.

Addressing public safety means confronting the conditions that drive crime in the first place. For too long, our jails have been forced to function as mental-health facilities, a role they were never designed to play. Jeffrey will expand access to mental-health services and invest in crisis-response teams to guide people away from emergency rooms and jail cells into the treatment they need and deserve. He will also work to strengthen reentry supports and invest in addiction treatment and supportive housing so individuals don’t cycle in and out of incarceration. 

Jeffrey will partner with schools, health systems, and community organizations to build neighborhood-based prevention programs that reduce crimes long before it happens. By focusing on healing, not punishment, Jeffrey will advance a public-safety strategy that keeps families safe, reduces recidivism, and builds a justice system that actually serves the people. When we put community first, making sure families have stability, care, and support, we dramatically reduce the likelihood that crises turn into criminalized situations. That’s real prevention.

Pennsylvanians in District 22 are facing a strained healthcare system, one where private Medicare Advantage plans often restrict access through narrow networks and aggressive prior authorizations, and where families struggle to navigate insurance, benefits, and rising costs. At the same time, local hospitals remain vulnerable, especially after the instability surrounding the Regional Hospital and Wilkes-Barre General transitions.

Jeffrey will change how healthcare is accessed in our community. He will require transparency and enforceable community-benefit agreements in any hospital acquisition and secure state support that protects emergency services, patient care, and the healthcare workforce. Looking ahead, he will pursue state-level universal coverage by introducing a public option as a pathway to a single-payer system, examining federal waiver opportunities, and provider reimbursement protections, with the goal of lowering costs, expanding access, and keeping care local.

Queer and trans Pennsylvanians are facing a harsher political climate. Some Senate Democrats recently voted in favor of legislation that would ban transgender girls and women from participating on K-12 and collegiate sports teams. He will oppose exclusionary school policies and instead invest in inclusive training and privacy accommodations, as well as create targeted workforce supports so LGBTQIA+ people have the economic stability they need

Jeffrey will protect LGBTQIA+ Pennsylvanians by defending and expanding access to gender-affirming care, strengthening nondiscrimination protections in housing, employment, and healthcare, and funding rapid-response legal aid for victims of bias. . Jeffrey believes PA should be a refuge where everyone can live safely and with dignity, not a place that strips people of basic inclusion.

Jeffrey knows every woman deserves autonomy over her own body and equal opportunity in life. He will protect reproductive freedom by blocking any abortion bans. Under current law, abortion is legal up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, and he will defend that standard. He’ll also close the gender pay gap by enforcing equal-pay laws and supporting working parents. Pennsylvania women still earn only about 82% of what men earn per week. To address the intimate partner violence endemic in America, Jeffrey will increase funding for domestic violence shelters, counseling, and prevention programs, ensuring survivors get help quickly. By empowering women and survivors and guaranteeing equal treatment at work and at home, he will make Pennsylvania fairer and safer for all families.

Jeffrey believes higher education should lift families up, not leave them with debilitating debt. He will enact a Pennsylvania Promise program that makes community college and state university tuition-free for in-state students. This education plan would cover two years at community college and four years at a state-owned university for qualifying students. Jeffrey will expand on that vision with a residency requirement so that Pennsylvania students benefit. Graduates who do not meet residency requirements or chose to attend private institutions may also benefit if they commit four years to community service (such as teaching in underserved schools or working at local clinics) by receiving loan repayment assistance. These investments will build our local workforce, spark economic growth, and ensure every Pennsylvanian can afford a college education without burden.

Pennsylvania’s workers built this state, and it’s time the law finally built security for them. Jeffrey will raise the minimum wage to $20 an hour (a plan that would help roughly 1.3 million Pennsylvanians) and index it to inflation so it never lags. He’ll provide incentives, such as loan forgiveness or tax credits, to encourage teachers, nurses, and social workers to serve in under-resourced urban and rural areas. Every worker deserves basic rights: he will enforce mandatory meal and rest breaks (currently no law guarantees breaks for adults), and guarantee paid sick leave and family/medical leave so nobody must choose between a paycheck and a sick child or parent. Finally, Jeffrey will make Election Day a paid state holiday, so every Pennsylvanian can vote without missing work. Together, these reforms modernize PA’s economy and give working families a fair shot.

Under Jeffrey’s plan, hardworking families will no longer carry all the tax burden. He will raise Pennsylvania’s corporate net income tax back to 9.99% (the rate in effect until 2022), ensuring big businesses and Wall Street pay fair support for schools, roads, and public services. He will also push to repeal the state constitution’s 150-year-old Uniformity Clause, which forces flat tax rates on all classes. That clause currently shields the super-rich: for instance, it prevents cities from taxing commercial property at higher rates than homes. By repealing it, Pennsylvania could adopt tiered income and property taxes, so the wealthy and large corporations contribute more while middle- and low-income families pay proportionally less. These reforms will make our tax code fairer and better fund state priorities.

Pennsylvania invests billions for our future, and Jeffrey will make sure our values travel with our dollars. He will impose strong ethical standards on all state funds and pensions. No taxpayer money will be used to buy bonds from foreign governments that violate human rights or democratic norms. Instead, investments will prioritize jobs here at home: in infrastructure, clean energy, affordable housing, and companies that pay fair wages. As activists have urged, state investment boards should “take into account environmental, social, and governance ethics” in every decision. This means transparency and accountability so that Pennsylvania’s savings help our communities, protect workers’ rights, and support justice, not fund regimes that discriminate or oppress.

The drug war has failed and it’s time for a smarter approach. Jeffrey will legalize and regulate adult-use marijuana statewide, treating it like alcohol and directing tax revenue to schools and addiction treatment. He also supports legalizing other natural medicines, such as psilocybin mushrooms and other plant-based psychedelic substances for supervised therapeutic use and decriminalizing personal possession, use, and cultivation of small amounts, following Colorado’s model (Proposition 122, approved by voters in 2022). All prior nonviolent cannabis and plant-based psychedelics convictions will be sealed and expunged. By decriminalizing these substances and focusing on treatment rather than punishment, Pennsylvania can reduce prison populations and help people recover health and stability. This approach cuts crime and saves tax dollars, while respecting individual freedom.

A safer Pennsylvania needs systems that heal, not simply punish. Jeffrey will repeal mandatory minimum sentences, restoring judges’ discretion so punishment fits the crime and the individual. He will oppose cruel practices like long-term solitary confinement and expand reentry programs—job training, counseling, and supportive housing—to help people rebuild after prison and reduce recidivism.

Family law should help children, not fuel conflicts. Jeffrey will support legislation making shared custody the default when both parents are fit, require trauma-informed training for judges, and implement simple mental-health evaluations to inform decisions. He will hold co-parents accountable for disparagement or “parental alienation” and fund mediation, parent education, and child-centered services to reduce acrimony. Together these reforms emphasize rehabilitation, fairness, and stability so families and communities can thrive.

Pennsylvanians should feel safe in their communities, not fearful. Jeffrey will require universal background checks on all gun sales to close the existing private-sale loophole. He will ban military-style assault weapons and large-capacity magazines, which studies show make mass shootings deadlier: one high-quality analysis found that assault-weapon bans significantly reduced school shooting casualties and high-capacity-magazine bans reduced fatalities in mass shootings. Jeffrey also supports reasonable limits on the number of guns a person can buy and tougher penalties for illegal gun trafficking. These steps (background checks, smart bans, and strict enforcement) will help keep firearms out of dangerous hands while respecting responsible gun ownership.

Pennsylvania has always been richer for its immigrant communities, and Jeffrey will welcome that tradition. He will end routine state cooperation with federal immigration detainers, directing that no one be held on an ICE warrant without a judge’s order, so local law enforcement isn’t complicit in deportations. Instead, he’ll invest in civic outreach and education: funding student and family field trips to Independence Hall, the Constitution Center, and other historic sites so everyone learns how our democracy works. Jeffrey will also crack down on predatory attorneys and “notario” fraud, making sure immigrants get honest legal help. By embracing newcomers and protecting all residents, he’ll make Pennsylvania a place where everyone can contribute and thrive.

Jeffrey will take big money out of Pennsylvania politics and give power back to the people. Under current law, there is no cap on what individuals or PACs can donate to candidates, letting wealthy interests drown out ordinary voters. He will align state law with federal limits (for example, capping individual donations at $3,500 per candidate per election) and close loopholes that allow hidden or unlimited spending. To amplify small donors, Jeffrey will create a public financing program (with limited public matching or loan options) so candidates can run on grassroots support, not just special-interest cash. He’ll also insist on stronger disclosure and an independent ethics commission to enforce campaign-finance rules. These measures will help restore trust that Harrisburg works for people, not just for the highest bidders.