Holt: Yes, I support increased teacher pay, improved teaching environments, more mental health workers, and early childhood education using the Education Trust Fund. I support improved school safety from guns and through curriculum reform. When we show students how we recognize hate and oppression within ourselves we empower them to choose compassion. We must support the commission’s findings while increasing its scope.

Holt: When a child is isolated due to lack of transportation, when a parent cannot afford transportation to a decent paying job, when the elderly cannot get out of the house due to a limited budget, it all contributes to the decline of our communities. Affordable public transportation helps people get to school, to work, and to friends and family. The focus on roads instead of affordable public transportation oppresses the poor. Maryland needs a long range transportation plan to include public transportation expansion for all our human needs, including transportation for work, court hearings, doctors appointments, and social services – funded partially by people getting to work generating taxable income. Maryland is behind on public transportation especially in District 30. I support a comprehensive plan to connect our communities to job centers and public services of all kinds. I support more funds for awareness and expansion of our bus, light rail, subway, MARC and AMTRAK systems, including expansion into rural areas. People need transportation to get to services that are basic human rights.

Holt: I support a referendum to allow voters to decide about legalization of adult recreational marijuana. I also supported and testified for the decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana. The “War on Drugs” failed and too many our black and brown people are sitting in jail. Families have been destroyed and children miss their parents because of mass incarceration. Further, substance use disorder is a medical disease not treated in jail but as a crime. Using medical marijuana for treatment of substance use disorders, in addition to group and individual therapies, is often a better alternative to prescribing FDA approved opioids like methadone. I support creating healthier communities and letting the people vote about recreational marijuana.

Holt: Healthy people and healthy communities steward a healthy environment. We must restore the Chesapeake Bay and combat climate change. If we want to protect the Bay it is crucial for us to protect the micro-ecosystems of smaller tributaries. Many people have inlets in their communities that are being contaminated by highway and bridge runoff. The once healthy creeks become dead zones. I support strengthening the Forest Conservation Act and creating a developer funded offsets policy for new pollution loads. I will facilitate Maryland’s participation in greenhouse gas reduction agreements like the U.S. Climate Alliance. We need to restore our fisheries, protect our wildlife, and preserve our beloved Chesapeake Bay.

Holt: Marylanders want health care, not affordable insurance. I support the Healthy Maryland Act for single payer which is universal care, and administered like New and Improved Medicare for All. We will fund this legislation and provide health care with the fortunes saved by the current redundancies in the insurance system. The insurance model of administrative waste, excessive salaries, lobbying fees and insurance profits is supported by politicians receiving campaign finances. Current increases in overdose statistics prove that it is almost impossible to treat to the public health emergency of those suffering from addictions without universal care. Insurance companies are not going to adequately pay for treatment. Marylanders are forced to choose between mortgage payments and insurance payments instead of health care. We must stop the politics of spending our precious tax dollars to stabilize insurance companies.

Holt: Maryland can do more for gun safety and controls especially for our children in their schools. Politicians accepting NRA money should give it to the school safety programs instead of financing their campaigns. Further, we must look deeply within ourselves to see the violence we all commit, in thought or in deed and ask why our communities produce the people committing violent crime. All of us have to take responsibility for everything that happens in Maryland, including violent crime. One of the root causes of violent crime is oppression. I don’t support mandatory sentencing and believe the 2018 Crime Bill is not the answer. I support expanding the education and outreach mission of the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights. I support programs that will educate all Marylanders, both young and old, about existing anti- discrimination laws and why they were enacted. Violent crime happens when we let it happen. A person who is gainfully employed with bright prospects for future advancement is far less likely to commit a violent crime. The more kind and compassionate we are, the more kindness and compassion we all experience, especially those who would commit violent crime. And it begins with access to health care, including and especially mental and emotional health care. So many people are on the streets suffer from the trauma of their everyday lives, some beginning at birth. We must make sure everyone has access to the services that will help them heal.

Holt: The business climate is inconsistent across Maryland. One of the reasons that Baltimore lost access to the Amazon deal is because of public transportation. Other cities lost because they don’t have affordable housing or enough tech workers to support the 50,000 jobs from Amazon. We need to look at the overall strategy and intersections between housing, education, transportation, child care, retirement, and taxes. Maryland has some of the highest taxes in the country. One remedy to support our business climate is single payer health care that would decrease the administrative costs for all business, freeing up the economy and empowering workers. When legislation is in place to guarantee things like health care, a liveable minimum wage, and paid sick leave, etc., we won’t need to create family-supporting jobs. All jobs will be family supporting jobs.

Holt: Yes, I support the creation of an independent redistricting commission. In addition to the Federal mandates concerning population and race, we must ensure communities of interest are preserved, practices which are favor or disfavor parties or incumbents are prohibited, and the use of partisan data is outlawed except to help with remediation.

Holt: We need to reimagine what our law enforcement officers do in our communities. At present their job is to enforce laws. Let’s create civilian community review boards, through which the police will have additional sources of perspective and guidance. When we continue to empower our law enforcement officers and emergency personnel to expand their roles as facilitators of caring we will transform our society.

Holt: We need to shift the conversation. First, we need to talk about all substances and adopt the term addiction and substance use disorder to drop opioid. As a woman in long term recovery, I know that calling it an opioid crisis is discriminatory and leaves out huge populations of people in dire need of help from alcoholism or other substances. Second, health practitioners and not insurance companies need to have the authority to decide treatment for the patient. We need to invest in treatment centers for related mental health issues as well as creating more centers that focus on recovery. Third, we must add more mental health workers in our schools to support children who are traumatized by the family disease of addiction. Fourth, we need adequate staffing across the emergency response spectrum who will treat those suffering from the disease of addiction with compassion and not as a criminal committing a crime. We need to lead the charge in making recovery more inclusive and part of an open dialogue for ALL communities. And we need universal health care to help make recovery a reality.

Holt: Legislation for a $15 per hour minimum wage is a start along with a world class education from early child care to high school graduation for all children including those with learning disabilities. Post HS graduation, we need to connect available jobs to our people with options like higher education, apprenticeships, or technology schools. Today, many parents can’t afford college tuition on top of their mortgages, insurance premiums and savings for retirement. Success in life and at work should not solely depend on the ability to pay for college. I plan to help all students, privileged or not, to improve their lives by supporting free community college and apprentice programs. Students will be able to earn an Associate’s degree while they are still in high school and enter a pipeline to good technology jobs, not prison. I will lend my business savvy to bring these programs to all communities in District 30 and to the rest of our state. Healthy communities give everyone a chance, including underprivileged residents, to thrive in life by landing good paying jobs.

Holt: I believe that more needs to be done with oversight and transparency for Marylanders and citizens are underrepresented by many politicians today. Elected officials represent the people and do not work for corporations, developers, polluters, and insurers handing out our precious tax dollars. Current practices and legislation suggest that we need advocates for the people and why I decided to run for office. I will work for the people and not for profit. As District 30 State Senator, I will fight for transparency in government so that our rights are honored and respected.