• Healthcare

  Valdez supports Medicare for All, pledging to sponsor it on Day One. She argues that health insurance corporations profit while people are uninsured or underinsured, and that healthcare is a human right.

• Housing

  Valdez advocates for universal rent control, public investment in housing supply, the right to a safe home, and tenant power with landlord accountability. She notes 77% of NY-7 residents are tenants and she would be a tenant member of Congress.

• Immigration

  Valdez calls for abolishing and dismantling ICE, ending for-profit detention, demilitarizing the border, and prosecuting ICE agents who break the law. She supports a path to lawful permanent residence, the DREAM Act, expanding immigration judges, and protecting immigrant workers' right to organize. She also addresses root causes of migration such as U.S. intervention, climate change, and trade policy.

Issues Claire is raising that aren't a shared debate across the field.

• Foreign Policy / Anti-War

  Valdez champions a foreign policy centered on human rights, peace, and cooperation. She opposes the war on Iran, supports a War Powers Resolution to end hostilities, advocates for diplomacy through the United Nations, and calls for redirecting military spending to domestic needs like healthcare and climate. She also opposes U.S. imperialism in Latin America, including the embargo on Cuba and extrajudicial killings.

• Higher Education

  Valdez supports tuition-free higher education, dismantling the tuition-and-loan business model, redirecting federal grants to cover cost of attendance and living expenses without means-testing, and ensuring fair compensation and collective bargaining rights for adjunct and contingent faculty.

• Israel/Palestine

  Valdez opposes U.S. military funding and arms sales to Israel, supports a comprehensive arms embargo, and cosponsors the Block the Bombs Act. She advocates for Palestinian self-determination and an end to U.S. complicity in human rights violations.

• LGBTQIA+ Rights

  Valdez pledges to pass national protections for queer and trans people, codify the right to live with dignity, enforce civil rights, include full coverage for gender-affirming care, contraception, and PrEP under Medicare for All, and invest in safe, inclusive housing for LGBTQIA+ people.

• Puerto Rico

  Valdez supports Puerto Rican self-determination via the Puerto Rican Self Determination Act, canceling Puerto Rico's debt, abolishing La Junta, building a publicly accountable renewable energy system, investing in resilient infrastructure, lowering grocery costs by repealing the Jones Act, and cleaning up environmental contamination from military activity.