Campaign Website: https://nembhardforvirginia.com/

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Campaign Email: info@nembhardforvirginia.com/

Vetting Panel Selected: Refused

Structured Interview Completed: Refused

Biography: As your next representative in the U.S. Congress, I will work to create a better community for our families; something I hope will one day make my sons and their generation proud. My personal experiences as a parent motivate me to lighten the burden for other working people and their families, including universal childcare and paid family leave. I also regularly commute over an hour to D.C., navigating the I-66 congestion that plagues our region. I aim to be intentional about promoting policies that tackle climate change and transit issues through targeted resources that offer improved access to sustainable transportation such as Metro, electric bus, and railway expansions, along with improved carpooling incentives. 

Many other issues are impacting Virginians and my goal is to empower as many residents as possible by working with them to address those issues. As a lifelong public servant and advocate, my focus is to combat injustices, inequality, government overreach, and misinformation, along with ensuring that our Commonwealth’s voice is effectively represented on the national level. I believe we need a representative that can work effectively across the aisle, while still standing firm on principles of doing the right thing, no matter how “difficult” it may be. I strongly believe that my sole purpose is to represent the interests of my residents, not my own interests, and definitely not the interests of special interest groups that advocate for policies harmful to my community. I am confident that by taking a measured approach when tackling complex issues, while fiercely advocating for our families, we will be able to accomplish a great deal of progress.

I know that if we want a strong economy, we need to give our communities the tools to succeed; which includes universal access to a world-class education. I am a strong believer that a rising tide lifts all boats and that if our families thrive, so will our community, small businesses, and overall economy.

I know that if we want a compassionate society, we need to exhibit that in our governance. This means protecting all Americans from attacks on our democracy, from erosion of our rights, and from extremist-inspired hate and intolerance. This means codifying Roe v. Wade, getting the Equal Rights Amendment passed, protecting members of marginalized communities, implementing policies that crackdown on disinformation, and strengthening our constitutional guardrails against attempts to weaken our democratic principles — something MAGA extremists are currently attempting to do.

Last, I know that if we want a government that truly keeps its residents safe, we must take public safety seriously, which is more than responsible policing, it includes passing effective gun safety policies, directly addressing climate change, expanding access to affordable health care and healthy foods, and ensuring a criminal justice system that works.

Some of my career highlights:

Worked full-time as an assistant attorney general at the Civil Rights Bureau in the New York State Office of the Attorney General.
Investigated complex white-collar crime, with a focus on insider trading, at FINRA.
Served as legislative counsel on the Council for the District of Columbia’s Committee on Transportation and the Environment.
Presided over cases as an administrative law judge for the D.C. Department of For-Hire Vehicles (DFHV), the D.C. regulator of transportation-based “gig economy” companies (e.g. rideshare and food and parcel delivery).
Became DFHV’s Chief Administrative Law Judge, then Division Chief of the agency’s Compliance and Enforcement Division, responsible for oversight of the overall for-hire industry and its evolution. (Source: https://nembhardforvirginia.com/)

Why you? “I learned how to ‘bridge the divide’ at a young age when my parents moved us to a community where it was more conservative and less diverse. My ability to communicate with individuals of staunchly opposing views to mine is a skill ingrained in me since childhood, and I intend to put that skill to use when working to combat the dysfunction and contentious environment plaguing the Halls of Congress.”

“I know that if we want a compassionate society, we need to exhibit that in our governance. This means protecting all Americans from attacks on our democracy, from erosion of our rights, and from extremist-inspired hate and intolerance.” (Source: https://nembhardforvirginia.com/)

What are your priorities? 

What’s most important to me:

Creating a working economy for working families

Strengthening our education system, for educators and students

Protecting the fundamental rights of Virginians, including their reproductive freedom

Ending gun violence, and expanding access to health care, irrespective of race, ethnicity, income level, location, or insurance provider

Investing in our local infrastructure, while also addressing climate change through clean investments

As a lifelong public servant and advocate, my focus is to combat injustices, inequality, government overreach, and misinformation, while ensuring our federal government is transparent and accessible, and effectively advocating on behalf of the interests of the 10th congressional district and Americans broadly. (Source: https://nembhardforvirginia.com/)

A Working Economy for Working Families
As the father of two young children, my personal experiences as a parent motivate me to lighten the burden for other working families. According to a recent report by the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center, Virginia ranks 32nd in cost of living. We need to take measures that will help to preserve the earning power of Virginians and Americans broadly by lowering everyday costs experienced. It’s not sufficient to simply call for a one-time tax cut, families need savings that will help their bottom line on a monthly basis.

As your next Congressman, I’ll fight for policies that help families reduce day-to-day expenses and impact everyday lives, including:

Universal Paid Family and Medical Leave.
Universal Pre-Kindergarten from ages 2 and up.
Establishing a Working Families Bill of Rights, which includes a right to 40 hours of earned sick leave.
Reducing the tax burden on working families by pushing for the removal of the cap on the SALT Deduction, expansion of the Federal Child Tax Credit, and implementation of a Homestead Deduction which would reduce real estate property taxes.
Promoting support for funding higher salaries for our educators, medical professionals, and first responders (including firefighters, emergency medical service, and law enforcement).
Establishing training programs that help Virginians find jobs or change careers, including “Next Generation” and “Emerging” fields, so that individuals are in a place to transition to new careers more easily.
Supporting our military service members, veterans and their families by improving housing, education, and disability benefits; offering more job-readiness training and programs; and expanding opportunities to achieve gainful employment in civilian sectors; and standardizing benefits ordinarily offered by certain states (e.g., tax-exemption for military pensions). (Source: https://nembhardforvirginia.com/)

Protecting Our Fundamental Rights
MAGA Republicans are attempting to scale back our freedom and further harm our nation’s most vulnerable populations. I will work to stop any actions that would make it harder to vote, reduce access to reproductive rights, or otherwise violate the principles of equal protection for all Americans.

You can count on me to fight for your fundamental rights. I will work hard to:

Protect the voting rights of all citizens.
Defend a woman’s right to make her own medical decisions.
Help to create a fair and equitable justice system that works by putting forth legislation that promotes a judiciary with adequate trainings, including managing unconscious biases and ensuring fairness and tolerance around diversity.
Support the Equality Act which would expand protections for LGBTQ+ people from discrimination in employment, housing, credit, jury service, and federally funded programs, and public places and spaces.
Support civil rights legislation, including the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act which would reinstate portions of the Voting Rights Act which have been eroded, and the Economic Inclusion Civil Rights Act, which would restore and protect the intent of Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 by adopting a motivation test that assesses the intent behind discriminatory actions impacting a person’s access to economic
Push back and defend our nation against hate speech, including racism, antisemitism, islamophobia, transphobia, and any other toxic rhetoric meant to target members of the community. (Source: https://nembhardforvirginia.com/)

Building for our Brighter Future

As a tech regulator in our nation’s capital, I would become the first member of Congress with direct experience regulating emerging technologies. I intend to lead the charge to usher in a new generation of laws meant to promote safe and ethical technological advancements:

Put forth the largest legislative framework since the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002, focused on expanding accountability and clarity, while promoting responsible technological developments in artificial intelligence, algorithms, and crypto.
Introduce laws that facilitate the adoption of regulatory frameworks which export American and democratic values to our global financial systems, while discouraging harmful conduct and unfair practices exhibited by nations like China, Iran, and Russia.
Stimulate development of advanced uses of technology, including blockchain and smart contracts, as a way of lowering costs on families and increasing protections against fraud and disinformation, while increasing transparency.
Initiate the complete digitization of most documents and processes involving the federal government, while encouraging state governments and public companies to do the same.
Adopt safeguards against hacking, deepfakes, and disinformation, through the use of watermark and token technology that offer online users a trusted method of verification. (Source: https://nembhardforvirginia.com/)

Strengthening Our Education System
As the husband of a Virginia public school teacher, I know firsthand about the challenges our educators experience. Moreover, we have seen a record number of provisional licenses — short-term licenses granted for teachers who have not met all state requirements — being issued to stave off the ongoing teacher shortages plaguing schools. This is largely due to low wages, increased workloads with fewer resources, and a politicized school environment. The teacher shortage has implications for our schools, and by extension, our students.

Educators and students deserve more than they get today, and in Congress, I will work to:

Increase funding for teachers, bus operators, and school staff.
Give students equal access to a quality education, regardless of the zip code that they live in or the amount of money their parents make.
Protect the integrity of our education system and curriculum, by pushing for the adoption of core principles in standard courses, such as African American History taught in American History, and updated guidelines as to recommended topics, such as coding, personal finance, and fact-checking of online sources. History should be taught accurately and our students should receive a complete education on topics important for becoming productive members of society.
Give public schools incentives to improve teacher recruitment and retention.
Ensure that students can learn in a safe environment, free from gun violence by promoting gun safety measures.
Provide and expand universal broadband access, to ensure that all students have a fair shot at learning and thriving in their educational experience. (Source: https://nembhardforvirginia.com/)

Expanding Access to Affordable Health Care
Everyone deserves access to quality health care irrespective of their race, ethnicity, income level, location, or insurance provider.

I will fight to make sure no one has their basic well-being needs ignored through affordable care initiatives including:

A national push for the Cover All Kids initiative, which provides funding for low-income children who are currently denied health coverage through Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Programs.
Reducing drug prices for all Americans through negotiation of drug prices, and the creation of an online database which will provide easy comparison of drug pricing by manufacturers, allowing individuals to compare prices across the industry.
Improving pandemic prevention and response for potential future outbreaks, by pushing for funding towards research and studies around effective measures that can be taken in light of challenges faced during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Modernizing our hospitals, with improved statistics around medical outcomes across all demographics. This includes tracking data around medical outcomes by all hospitals, based along certain categories including race, gender, and ethnicity. (Source: https://nembhardforvirginia.com/)

Investing in Local Infrastructure
As a Virginian who commutes regularly to D.C., I know firsthand the challenges around high density population and the headache of driving on I-66 during rush hour, and deciding between backed-up traffic or expensive tolls. I will work to invest in initiatives that expand support for local infrastructure development, including:

Addressing the issues around traffic congestion through pilot programs that go beyond basic roadway expansion.
Looking into potential price gouging practices by tolls and capping excessive fees.
Evaluating how roadway projects are impacting residents and their properties, including eminent domain practices.
Incentivizing and lowering the cost of green energy investments, including pushing for Virginia and other states to adopt initiatives such as refunds to those who purchase solar panels and other alternative energy sources for their homes.
Protecting against poorly planned and invasive development, while encouraging diverse business investments.
Creating opportunities for affordable housing through initiatives such as incentives provided to developers who invest in “blighted” structures and other sub-market-priced buildings so that their resale value remains at market price. (Source: https://nembhardforvirginia.com/)

Endorsements: No endorsements listed on website.

Education: No mention of education on website.

Relevant Employment History: See biography above.

Military Experience / Branch / Years of Service / Rank / Type of Discharge: No mention of military service on website.

Past Offices Held and Tenure: No mention of past political service.

Community Service: 

My community service background includes:

Mentoring underprivileged youth.
Helping adult learners attain their GED as a volunteer teacher.
Offering pro bono immigration legal services.
Testifying before legislative committees on the importance of addressing illiteracy and food deserts.
Working with small businesses to help build sustainable solutions in a post-COVID world.
Serving on various nonprofit boards and advisory councils including Momentum Collective, Inc., DC Latino Leadership Council, and the Washington Literacy Center (Source: https://nembhardforvirginia.com/)

Leadership Experience: See biography above.

Personal Strengths: Refused to answer. 

What is the most important thing Virginians need to know about you? Refused to answer.

How would your friends and family describe you? Refused to answer.
 

What are your thoughts on the Constitution as the Law of the Land? Refused to answer. No reference to the US Constitution on website. (Source: https://nembhardforvirginia.com/)

    

What are your thoughts on religious liberty? Refused to answer. No reference to religious liberty on website. (Source: https://nembhardforvirginia.com/)

    

What are your thoughts on the preservation of our history? Refused to answer. No reference to the preservation of history on website. (Source: https://nembhardforvirginia.com/)

   

What are your thought on government transparency? Refused to answer. No reference to government transparency on website. (Source: https://nembhardforvirginia.com/)

   

What are your thoughts on national defense? Refused to answer. No reference to veterans or national defense on website. (Source: https://nembhardforvirginia.com/)

   

What are your thoughts on the free enterprise system? Refused to answer. Professes values strongly contrary to the values of Chasing Freedom – Virginia. No reference to the free enterprise system on website. (Source: https://nembhardforvirginia.com/)

   

What are your thoughts on the protection of the unborn? Refused to answer. Professes values strongly contrary to the values of Chasing Freedom – Virginia. No reference to protection of the unborn on website. (Source: https://nembhardforvirginia.com/)

   

What are your thoughts on the role the family plays in America? Refused to answer. No reference to the role or importance of the family  on website. (Source: https://nembhardforvirginia.com/)

   

What are your thoughts on equal rights, equal justice and equal opportunity, as opposed to equal outcomes? Refused to answer. Professes values strongly contrary to the values of Chasing Freedom – Virginia. No reference to equal rights, equal justice and equal opportunity, as opposed to equal outcomes on website. (Source: https://nembhardforvirginia.com/)

   

What are your thoughts on the 2nd Amendment? Refused to answer. Professes values strongly contrary to the values of Chasing Freedom – Virginia. No reference the 2nd Amendment on website. (Source: https://nembhardforvirginia.com/)

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