Nathan’s Platform

In the Senate, I will be an unapologetic voice for America's long neglected working class. I grew up in a trailer park, I am the son of the American working class: my father was a factory worker and my mom was a daycare teacher. The struggle that so many Americans are going through right now is the same struggle that I lived. 

Right now, the American Dream is out of reach for so many. I am going to fight to take it back and make it a reality. 

For too long, those at the top have been padding their pockets and giving themselves raises while hard working Americans have been left working for scraps. When I get to the Senate, I will fight to raise the minimum wage to a liveable wage so that every worker can live and work in dignity.

We need to put more power directly into the hands of American workers, expand and strengthen our unions, and give workers more opportunities. In the Senate, I will fight to pass the PRO Act, which Sen. Ernest opposes.

We pay more money for worse outcomes than almost anywhere else in the developed world? Why? Because the insurance companies bought up both parties and rewrote the rules. They take hundreds of billions of dollars in government money while robbing patients blind.

When I get to the Senate, I will fight corporate greed and ensure that the U.S. government can negotiate drug costs to lower prices. Right now, politicians like Joni Ernst are doing the bidding of the pharmaceutical industry. When I get to Washington, I will take on the corporate bosses and Iowa will no longer have a Senator like Joni Ernst, who is bought and sold by the big drug companies.

We must end private equity’s price gouging of our seniors. The entry of private equity into our healthcare system has been a disaster – and seniors are paying the price. We’ve seen horror story after horror story. Private equity buys out elder care facilities, saddles them with debt, forces them to sell off real estate holdings, and pockets the savings. Facilities are then forced to reduce staffing and services. It’s borderline criminal and it must stop!

We must ban individuals from spending millions of dollars to buy elections. This may take a constitutional amendment. But we’ve done that as a country 27 times before. Better get started.

Right now, the billionaires, corporations, and special interests hold all the power. They—not the American people—control who wins and loses in Washington. They spend unlimited money buying elections  and sending their lobbyists to Congress. This is why Joni Ernst has become an Elon Musk lapdog: she wants those billions to save herself in this election.

I refuse to take money from any corporation. I refuse to work for a party boss who answers to billionaire donors. In the Senate, I will support all efforts to get big money out of our politics so that it's easier to elect people who care about the people – not billionaires and corporations.

It is a disgrace that because of our rigged tax code, so many working-class people pay a larger percentage of their income in taxes than billionaires. When I get to Washington, I will fight to fix our broken tax code so that hard-working Americans do not have huge chunks of their paychecks sent away to the federal government. 

In the Senate, I will fight for a tax system that guarantees billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg are actually paying their share of taxes and can no longer scam the system.

Our small businesses, family farmers, and small town way of life are under attack

It’s crazy that small businesses pay higher tax rates than their multi-national competitors, who ship jobs overseas and hide their profits in tax shelters. We need to slash the small business taxes that have tilted the playing field in favor of the multi-nationals.

Our small towns have been hit by decades of failed trade policies. Fixing the economy will take time. But as I’ve seen as the executive director of the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce, we have the talent here to rebuild our main streets – if we give them the tools. That’s why we need a War on Blight. Too many towns are crippled by decades of abandoned property that are a health hazard and keep property values down; we need serious federal support for blight clearance.

As a veteran who did three tours of Iraq, I know that we are not adequately taking care of those who served our country. Joni Ernst has supported Elon Musk's brutal cuts at the Department of Veterans Affairs. These cuts will have real impacts on veterans like myself who depend on the Department of Veterans Affairs for critical services like healthcare. 

Unlike Joni Ernst, I will never turn my back on our veterans. I believe that if you serve our country, then our country should honor your service.That’s why I support comprehensive job placement and job training services for our veterans when they return home.

Right now, thousands upon thousands of veterans are homeless.This is a stain on our country. When I get to the Senate, I will work to ensure that no one who has ever served our country is forced to sleep on the streets.

Our servicemen and women are criminally underpaid. How do we expect to maintain a capable military if we pay people pennies (while contractors line their pockets)? No more soldiers on food stamps!

Without a border, we don't have a country. For years, Democrats and Republicans have paid lip service to the idea of border security as millions of people illegally streamed over the border. It’s unsafe for migrants, dangerous for our communities, and hurts American workers. Joni Ernst has spent years talking about the crisis at the border but never got anything done.

Joni Ernst’s multi-national corporate donors want the border to stay open. They benefit from cheap illegal labor who they can pay pennies. They are standing in the way of serious immigration reform.

We need to fix our immigration system so that people who want to come here, work hard, and contribute to society have a real, realistic path to citizenship. At the same time, we need to deport and keep out criminals who want to harm Americans.

Polluters have had a blank check to destroy public health for too long. I will hold accountable those who would poison the air and water that we depend on

I will help to build the growing bipartisan coalition against the ultra-processed food that is making America one of the unhealthiest countries in the world

America must be a clean energy leader. Wind has been a boon to Iowa, and in a million ways the federal government needlessly stands in the way. More and better energy will make America cleaner, more powerful, and more sustainable.

Congressmen make millions on what is basically legalized insider trading.

They hand out billions to government contractors...then go cash out at lucrative jobs with the very same contractors.

We have legalized corruption in America and neither party will act. Send me to the Senate, and I will.

Multi-national monopolies, from meatpackers to Big Tech, have a formula: accumulate billions of dollars, buy out or crush their competitors (by any means necessary), then jack up prices once the competition is dead and gone -- and buy up both political parties to ensure that whoever wins, they win.

100 years ago, we busted the trusts. We broke up the huge multi-nationals and brought competition back to the market. We must do so again. I'll support modernizing the Packers and Stockyards Act, Robinson-Patman, and other statutes to protect competition and protect the small businesses our economy so badly needs.

Politicians in Washington have no right to tell women what they can and cannot do when it comes to their personal health and well-being. 

This issue is deeply personal to me. In March of last year, my wife and I found out what we were expecting. Sadly, like so many women across the country, she suffered a miscarriage about a month into her pregnancy. It was devastating. There were so many unknowns and so much pain—physical for my wife and emotional for both of us. I fully understand that I’ll never know the full toll this takes on women, but I now have a much deeper understanding of the fear, the grief, and the trauma that comes with that experience. And I can’t imagine how much worse that fear must be when politics and judgment are forced into such a deeply personal and painful moment.

In the Senate, I will always fight for women and women’s rights.

I believe that who you love or how you identify is your business—not the government's. What happens in your home, heart, or identity does not concern a politician in Washington. 

We are all human beings. We all deserve the same rights—no exceptions. It is your freedom to live as your true self, and I will always stand with you in that fight.