Hi, I’m Stephen. I grew up right in California’s 48th district, — just 10 minutes down the road from where I now live with my wife and son. I know the folks in my district because I grew up facing many of the same challenges that plague our community today. I know what it’s like to be in the working class; what it’s like to have to choose between paying your mortgage and your health care. My mother worked two jobs to make ends meet, so I helped raise my sister and started working when I was 13. Darrell Issa is a multimillionaire who can’t possibly know what it’s like to be you or me, to struggle finding good work, or to pinch every penny so you can afford to one day send your child to college.
COVID-19 is personal for me. In the early days of the pandemic, I was called by the ICU to help triage patients and prepare for crisis standards of care. The possibility of my decisions impacting who got critical care and who didn’t is one of the hardest things I have ever had to do.
COVID-19 moved fast; our response must be faster.
We need to do a number of things to make sure California and the country get out of COVID stronger than ever before:
Make sure everyone who wants to be vaccinated is able to. California is one of the most vaccinated states, and because of that, we have some of the lowest infection and mortality rates from COVID in the country.
Make sure every American has access to affordable healthcare. It is unconscionable that during a global pandemic that has cost 700,000 American lives, many people still can’t afford health insurance, let alone can access health care.
Fight poverty and inequality. The COVID pandemic has exacerbated poverty and inequality to new highs. Billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, with the help of the Federal Reserve, have made billions upon billions of dollars during the pandemic, all while regular Americans have lost their jobs, taken pay cuts, and pinched pennies.
