AMY VILELA ON THE ISSUES
A PLATFORM
FOR THE PEOPLE
After spending months meeting with local stakeholders, front line communities, and those advocating for the kind of transformative policy solutions to the many problems we face, we are proud to present a platform that truly does put regular, working class people in NV-01 and those most vulnerable to the cracks in our current system first.
This campaign is about lifting up the bold, progressive solutions being advocated for by frontline stakeholders—both in Las Vegas and across the country.
Note: No platform is ever complete.
The solutions that we’re proposing are always growing and evolving, and this platform will continue to develop and reflect the change that we’re fighting for here in Nevada’s First District.
WE NEED A GREEN NEW DEAL. NOW.
While our status quo leadership in Nevada represents the interests of corporate developers looking to take advantage of our community, decades of drought have Lake Mead’s water levels are at record lows, excessive heat warnings have become our new normal, wildfires are ravaging the West, and the ecology of the Mojave Desert is on the verge of permanent collapse. On top of all that, the effects of environmental racism leave Black, brown, immigrant, poor, working class, and other frontline communities in the heart of Las Vegas bearing the brunt of our climate crisis.
IT’S TIME FOR OUR IMMIGRANT FAMILIES TO STOP LIVING IN FEAR.
Las Vegas is a city of immigrants and home to the largest undocumented population per capita in the country, yet for decades they’ve remained under attack. Long before Trump took office, decade after decade, elected officials—both Democrat and Republican alike—in Washington, D.C. have delivered nothing but broken promises and have failed to pass immigration reform. At the same time, U.S. policies—on climate change, the failed war on drugs, and foreign affairs—played a role in increasing global migration. For years, undocumented communities have lived in the long shadow of surprise raids and forced deportations while documented immigrants have navigated a slow, uncertain, and archaic bureaucracy.
LAS VEGAS IS ONCE AGAIN AT THE CENTER OF OUR HOUSING CRISIS.
In 2020, a huge number of Las Vegas families faced that same reality during the pandemic, and it happened before during the 2008 financial crisis. Now, in 2021, rent in Las Vegas is rising quicker than any other large metropolitan area in the US. Over and over, our absent leaders choose to continue down the same path: enabling a housing market that is fueled by profit-seeking, out-of-state and foreign investors, rather than building systems that protect our communities and prevent residents from losing their homes. Housing is a human right and it should be treated as such.
OUR CHILDREN AND OUR EDUCATORS DESERVE SO MUCH MORE.
Las Vegas is home to the 5th largest school district and the largest independent teacher’s unions in the country, yet we perpetually have among the worst education outcomes thanks to decades of failed leadership from our electeds. We do not adequately fund the infrastructure we need to support our students. Our leaders, the state of Nevada, and Clark County must use every tool at their disposal to fund our schools so that every teacher has the resources they need, both in and out of the classroom. Only then will our teachers be able to focus on educating our children in a fair and equitable way. As a mother of four, you can guarantee that I’ll be using the bully pulpit of Congress to push for the much-needed legislation necessary in order to set up our kids and future generations for success.
IT'S TIME TO FINALLY PASS A SINGLE-PAYER MEDICARE FOR ALL SYSTEM.
My daughter, Shalynne, died needlessly because she was failed by our corporate-centric, profit-driven “healthcare” system. Last year, too many of our friends, families, and neighbors left us or found themselves with insurmountable debt due to the same rotten system. We know there’s a better way: a way that doesn’t leave behind senior citizens, that doesn’t leave behind our unhoused and uninsured, that doesn’t leave behind our students or those in poverty. We just have to be bold enough to stand up in the face of an industry that is willing to trade your life for profit. We have to be courageous enough to fight for another way forward, building a system of our own that echoes the successful systems of other countries, but which takes into account the unique challenges of our own.
WORKERS ARE THE BACKBONE OF OUR ECONOMY. IT'S TIME TO PUT THEM FIRST
Southern Nevada was hit exceptionally hard by the pandemic and, instead of learning from the mistakes that pushed us into financial crisis, status quo politicians are setting us up for yet another failure. An economic system that fails to realize that politics and profit are intertwined and sacrifices the working class for corporate profits is as cruel as it is unsustainable. While people across Las Vegas and the country were forced to stand in hours-long food distribution lines, the richest people in the world multiplied their wealth and took vacations to space.As an accountant, former CFO, and local small business owner, I understand that the math here doesn’t add up. As a former single mother who relied on WIC and foodstamps to get by, I understand the challenges that the working class faces. I know that we deserve more.
NONE OF US WILL HAVE TRUE JUSTICE UNTIL ALL OF US HAVE DO.
Some communities see investment of resources: good schools, nice parks, youth centers, and health services. Others only see significant investment in police and prisons. It’s a system that only widens the chasm between the haves and the have-nots, and as we know, the investment choices are frequently racialized. Policing has been used to build a system of control over the lives of working people—especially Black and brown people—while corporate, so-called “white collar” (and typically white-skinned) criminals are handed “get out of jail free” cards. We have an entire sector of public employees who refuse to be held accountable to any degree. These same officials are given the power to lock people away in prisons that then draw profits off of the incarceration of our communities. There is no doubt that we have to vastly reimagine our criminal justice system by centering racial justice and investing in rehabilitation, police accountability, and our most marginalized and exploited communities.
DURING THE COURSE OF THIS PANDEMIC, OUR CURRENT LEADERS HAVE BEEN NOWHERE TO BE SEEN.
Unfortunately, Las Vegas is no stranger to crises. During the Great Recession, we faced some of the highest unemployment, foreclosure, and houselessness rates in the country. Now, during the COVID-19 pandemic, history is repeating itself. Undocumented communities, low-income families, women, communities of color, and essential workers in CD-1 have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, yet are the least likely to receive any relief. Our neighbors are facing a loss of livelihood, housing, and life; meanwhile, our current leaders lack the will to protect and support the most vulnerable people in our district in the short-term and the long-term.
