The Root of the Problem
Maria will tell you something that most politicians won’t:
Almost every issue on this website — healthcare, Social Security, tax policy, the environment — has a known solution. The ideas are not the problem. The problem is that the people with the power to implement those solutions are financially dependent on the people who benefit from keeping things broken.
That is not cynicism. That is the reality of American politics in 2026. And until we fix it, we cannot fully fix anything else.
Special interests, corporate lobbyists, and billionaire donors spend billions of dollars every election cycle to ensure that Congress remains responsive to them — not to the teacher in Ashtabula, not to the small business owner in Mentor, not to the retiree in Warren living on Social Security.
Maria is running to change that. And she is starting immediately with this campaign.
Who Funds This Campaign
Maria believes corporations shouldn’t have outsized influence in our democracy. That’s why she doesn’t accept corporate PAC money — no donations from corporate PACs, pharmaceutical companies, insurance corporations, or Wall Street banks.
She does accept support from unions and community organizations that stand with working families. She’s building this campaign on small-dollar donations from real people — neighbors, coworkers, anyone who believes the 14th District deserves a representative who answers to them.
This campaign is funded by people like you — not corporate PACs, not special interests. If you believe the 14th District deserves a representative who actually answers to them, even a small donation helps.
The Scale of the Problem
The American campaign finance system is broken in ways that most people feel, but few fully understand:
- The Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision opened the floodgates to unlimited corporate and special interest spending in elections — treating corporations as people and money as speech
- Dark money — political spending by nonprofit organizations that are not required to disclose their donors — has poured billions of dollars into elections with zero transparency or accountability
- Super PACs allow wealthy donors and corporations to spend unlimited amounts to influence elections, as long as they maintain a legal fiction of not coordinating directly with campaigns
- Members of Congress spend an estimated 30 to 70 percent of their time on fundraising — time that should be spent governing
- Lobbyists write legislation, fund campaigns, and then move through the revolving door between industry and government with virtually no restrictions
- Congressional stock trading allows members of Congress to profit from non-public information they receive in their official capacity — information that would send a private citizen to jail
The result is a Congress that is structurally incapable of acting in the public interest on issue after issue — because acting in the public interest would cost its members their funding.
What Maria Will Fight For
1. Overturn Citizens United
The Citizens United Supreme Court decision was a catastrophic blow to American democracy. Maria supports a constitutional amendment to make clear that corporations are not people and money is not speech — and that Congress has the authority to regulate campaign finance in the public interest. This is a long road, but it is the right destination and Maria will walk it.
2. Full Disclosure of Dark Money
Every dollar spent to influence an American election should be publicly disclosed. No exceptions. No shell corporations. No anonymous donors hiding behind nonprofit status. Maria supports the DISCLOSE Act and any legislation that brings full transparency to political spending so that voters know who is trying to buy their elections.
3. Public Financing of Elections
Maria supports a small-dollar matching system for federal elections. Under this kind of system, small donations are matched with public funds — turning a $50 donation from a nurse into $300 or more. It doesn’t erase the influence of big money overnight. But it does mean that candidates have a real financial incentive to talk to ordinary people instead of spending all their time chasing checks from corporate PACs. More small donors means more accountability to real people — and that’s how democracy is supposed to work.
4. Ban Congressional Stock Trading
This one should not even be controversial. Members of Congress regularly receive non-public information about industries, companies, and economic conditions through their official duties. Using that information to trade stocks is insider trading — full stop. The fact that it has been legal for members of Congress is an outrage that erodes public trust every single day.
Maria supports requiring members of Congress and their immediate families to either divest their individual stock holdings or place them in a blind trust managed by an independent trustee. What is illegal on Wall Street should be illegal on Capitol Hill. We should not have to tell people not to cheat — but since we apparently do, we need real enforcement to back it up.
5. Close the Revolving Door
The movement of individuals between government positions and the industries they regulate or legislate — taking their inside knowledge and relationships with them — is one of the most corrosive forces in American politics. Maria supports significantly strengthening revolving door restrictions, including longer cooling-off periods before former members of Congress and senior staff can become lobbyists.
6. Strengthen Lobbying Disclosure and Reform
Lobbyists play a powerful role in shaping legislation — and that role is largely invisible to the public. Maria supports stronger lobbying disclosure requirements, stricter rules on gift-giving and travel paid for by special interests, and real enforcement of existing lobbying laws that are routinely ignored.
7. Restore the Office of Congressional Ethics
Independent ethics oversight of Congress has been systematically weakened over the years. Maria supports restoring and strengthening the Office of Congressional Ethics as a truly independent body with the resources and authority to investigate and hold members accountable — regardless of party.
8. End Gerrymandering
Rigged maps produce rigged outcomes. When politicians choose their voters instead of voters choosing their politicians, accountability disappears. Maria supports independent redistricting commissions that draw congressional maps based on communities — not partisan advantage.
Why This Issue Connects to Everything Else
Maria wants to be direct with voters about something: campaign finance reform is not a standalone issue. It is the issue that unlocks all the others.
We have to be honest about something. Drug prices are where they are because pharma has a lot of power in Washington. The tax code reflects the same reality — the people with money have a voice in how the rules get written. And climate action has been slowed down for years by industries that didn’t want change.
The special interests are not going to fix this. The politicians they fund are not going to fix this. It will take a new generation of representatives — people who are genuinely accountable to their constituents rather than their donors — to fix this.
That is exactly what Maria intends to be.
A Note from Maria
“I find it genuinely baffling that we have to make laws telling elected officials not to cheat. Not to use information they get in their official capacity to enrich themselves. Not to take money from the industries they’re supposed to regulate. These things should be obvious. They should be disqualifying. The fact that they’re not — the fact that this is just how Washington works — tells you everything you need to know about why Washington doesn’t work for you. I’m going to change that. Starting with how I run this campaign.”