Roberto's Position on the Issues

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Democracy in our democratic republic is being openly threatened by the extremist Republican political forces that launched their January 6 violent attempt at insurrection to prevent the constitutionally mandated peaceful transfer of power, and they are continuing their threat by baseless allegations of stolen elections, which all of our courts have rejected for lack of evidence.

 I support women’s right to choose and reject the attempts by political ideologues to impose their restrictive views on women’s reproductive decision-making. 

I support adequate and sustained public education funding to ensure quality education for all children. Ensuring quality education for all children is something that we should all strive for. That's why I strongly support sustained funding for public education throughout a child's formative K-12 years and into higher education. At the same time, I believe that public funding should not be diverted to private or religious institutions. We must ensure that our children have access to an education free from bias and censorship. This includes rejecting attempts to ban books or to censor truthful history. We owe it to our children to give them the tools they need to succeed in life, and that starts with a quality education available to all. 

I support bold environmental initiatives to confront the disastrous impacts of climate change.

I support the public-private economic policies enacted by the Biden administration which have provided much needed post-pandemic resources to Arizona’s K-12 and higher education, upgrading our aging infrastructure, improving our roads and highways, enticing investments in CHIPS and Science, expanding protection of our unique natural landscapes, our forests, and supporting local entrepreneurs struggling to sustain local economies, expanding broadband coverage to rural communities, all of which help improve the quality of life for all Arizonans.

  Arizona should prevent the unregulated marketing of high-capacity death-dealing firearms, while supporting the right to sensible gun ownership and adoption of red flag regulations to reduce the tragic loss of life.

  Ensure that nature’s own defense mechanisms are allowed to function without the additional hazards of clear-cutting, and by meaningfully regulating encroachment by unnecessary structures that disrupt nature’s own self-protecting cycles of renewal and growth.

 Our water is a limited essential resource and must be protected from over-use and migrating pollutants.

I will continue my years-long active involvement and leadership supportive of equal rights and religious, racial, and LGBTQ liberties.  A history of commitment illustrated by my leadership as president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona and my role as founding president of Somos America/We Are America, a coalition that initiated the landmark case in which we continue as the plaintiff organization in the on-going Melendres versus Maricopa County Sheriff racial profiling case that found Sheriff Joe Arpaio guilty of unconstitutional racial profiling.

 As a native-born U.S. citizen of Mexican immigrants, I have witnessed and fought against the perennial fear-mongering campaigns against immigrants.  We must confront the racist distortion of those seeking refuge in the U.S.  Today’s immigrants from south of the border are coming here for the same reasons that brought northern Europeans to our shores -- seeking a better life free of economic misery, seeking freedom from persecution.  Our immigration system has been broken and neglected for decades.  And it will remain broken so long as extremist Republicans can use it to rile up their base every election cycle. 

  Healthcare continues to be a concern for Arizonans, especially in outlying regions, because of the lack of accessibility and affordability that impacts timely treatment and limits the  availability of costly prescription medications.