The number one issue for the majority of Americans is the cost of living. Over 50% of Americans are cost burdened by rent. Childcare and healthcare costs have risen over 40% since 2017. Grocery costs have increased over 30% since covid. Yet the federal minimum wage is still $7.25 and corporations continue price gauging practices across industries without any government oversight as millions live paycheck to paycheck. 

Erik understands what families in NY-12 and across the nation are experiencing. He is actually from a middle-class background, grew up in a family that owned a small business and is not an insider, a rich kid, or made bank and cashed out in the private sector. 

As a Councilmember, Erik has fought to make New York a better and more affordable place by building thousands of units of affordable housing, increasing childcare tax credits and vouchers for city residents, and in Congress he will continue that work. 

Everyone else will talk about it, but Erik is the only candidate in the race who has done the work to make our district more affordable and has a plan to tackle the affordability crisis and deliver relief for the American people, like he has in the city council: 

• Introduce legislation to end corporate price gouging of consumer goods and introduce penalties for corporations found liable for conspiring to inflate prices across industries

• Secure funding for historic levels of affordable housing in NYC, expanded grants for homebuyers, and lower interest rates for first time home buyers to turn more renters into homeowners 

• Fight for legislation to move our nation to a medicare for all system and also eliminate medical debt for families making less than $125,000 a year because Erik believes healthcare is a human right and one healthcare tragedy should not bankrupt a family.

• Use community grants to increase childcare options in the district and support increases to the childcare tax credit while fighting for a national standard of universal childcare

• Reach across the aisle to eliminate the SALT cap that penalizes New Yorkers and takes thousands of dollars out of our pockets.