What types of transportation do you use during an average week, and how has this shaped your view of transportation policy?

I am a lifelong user of public transit. I grew up on the Far North Side of Chicago and lived basically my entire life without a car: my family and I have always used bikes, buses, and trains to get around. That lived experience is something that not only sets me apart in this field, but in Congress as a whole. We desperately need more elected leaders who are in-touch with their communities and actually relate to the daily lives of their constituents. Being a lifelong transit user has also shaped my approach to transportation policy in the Illinois Senate, where I’ve advocated for transformational investment for transit and pedestrian infrastructure. As a member of the Illinois Senate Transportation Committee, I worked hard to co-lead newly passed legislation that fully funds public transit in Illinois and sets the state on a path to far-reaching public transit modernization. SB2111 includes $1.5 billion in transit funding for Chicagoland and Illinois. I also specifically worked to get several provisions including capital funds to build bus rapid transit on the far north side of Chicago and elsewhere. I also pushed for more frequent service, an end to “ghost” buses, and a new transit ambassador program that will place professionalized customer service staff on public transit to boost safety, modeled after several other global cities. No one will champion public transit as passionately and with the experience I have as a wide-ranging user of the systems.

What are some transportation challenges in your district?

This district stretches from Uptown all the way out to Crystal Lake, in McHenry County. That diversity of geography means we need an active and thorough advocate for transit that addresses all of our district’s needs. I would bring a full transit vision to Congress: where bus rapid transit and electrified transit fleets are in every major city and suburb, reducing our cities’ carbon footprint; where buses regularly service suburbs and small towns across the 9th District and the country, because all people deserve transit; where high-speed rail is not just a goal, but the standard; where bike grids are designed for all major cities, with the help of federal funding, so that everyone from environmentalists to residents to daily commuters can opt for biking; where transit workers and operators work with dignity, safety, and strong collective bargaining rights. These investments would boost local and metro economies while reducing pollution, traffic congestion, and pedestrian danger. Our unique district needs a transit champion to represent our needs.

How do you view Congress’s role in setting priorities for public transit, passenger rail, and strengthening accessibility in transportation?

Congress is sorely lacking leaders who understand and advocate for transportation, because not enough people in Congress actually use public transit. Elected leaders and especially Congressional Democrats should be taking a more forceful role in making public transit more reliable and more accessible for people across the country, not just in cities. With the power of the purse, Congress has opportunities to invest and incentivize building new transit, expanding passenger rail lines, and working to make transportation safe and accessible for all communities.

What’s your position on the Federal government and Illinois’ current transportation infrastructure spending, and if you could change anything, what would it be?

I will always support increasing our federal investment in public transportation: I am ready to be the loudest voice for public transit in Congress. Public transportation and transit systems nationwide have been continually underfunded and neglected, while the federal government incentivizes highways that cut neighborhoods apart and feed into a car-centric society that affects the health of our bodies, our environment, our communities, and our future. The optimal allocation between public transportation and highway funding is likely something that looks different from state to state, based on the state’s transportation needs and local funding mechanisms, but I will always be a champion for putting public dollars into public transit.

What is your position on investing to expand passenger rail service in Illinois, including the development of high-speed rail?

I fully support dramatically investing in expanding passenger rail and finally bringing widescale high-speed rail to our state, and our country! This isn’t just a policy position for me, this is personal: I regularly use several CTA bus routes to commute, as well as the PULSE Dempster line, several suburban PACE bus routes, and I use the “L” and the Metra to get around. As Senator, I use Amtrak to get back and forth from Chicago to the state capitol in Springfield during Session. I know firsthand the importance of expanding our passenger rail options for commuters, regional visitors, and everyday people who deserve a public transportation system that truly meets their needs. In Congress I would be an active champion for high-speed rail and other transportation policy that bring the richest country in the world in line with other developed nations.

Federal funding for Illinois transportation projects – such as the Red Line Extension and Red-Purple Modernization projects – has come under threat from the Trump administration. How do you plan to shore up funding for critical infrastructure projects under a hostile federal climate?

The Trump Administration’s weaponization of federal funding is one of its most egregious violations. These are often spending decisions that have been made and approved by state and local authorities or even Congress, but are threatened out of political pettiness and retribution. I would navigate this hostile federal policy environment by pushing back on complacent Democrats and extremist Republicans in Congress, who are letting the executive branch trample their constitutional obligations. I would use the full bully pulpit of my office to call out do-nothing legislators and I would go back to where power really comes from: the people. I would organize my constituents around these projects, uplifting their stories and how these specific projects would improve their material conditions. We can’t let the threat of millions of dollars of frozen funding exist as just a political football: Congress needs to highlight exactly how these threats are hurting our economy and day-to-day life.

Our streets have become increasingly militarized in the past several months as the Trump administration has ramped up DHS and ICE activity in our cities. This past summer, Congress voted to increase the ICE budget larger than most of the world's militaries.

What is your position on ICE and related immigration enforcement?

We must abolish ICE and pursue justice against those that have violated our constitutional rights: we cannot have a reformist mindset on this agency, not after witnessing the terror they put on our streets in Chicago, in Minnesota, in Charlotte and Memphis, and around the country. I would fight every day to claw back the $170 billion bloated ICE budget that the One Big Beautiful Bill took out of programs that I grew up with and that so many families like mine use in the 9th District: Medicaid, education programs like Pell Grants, housing assistance funding, mental and reproductive healthcare facilities, and so much more. I believe the only way our country can reckon with and redeem its past is by being a beacon for persecuted people across the world. That is the vision I have for immigration and enforcement: inclusion, not deportation.