Melissa McDonough

Disagree

Healthcare is a fundamental human right, and healthcare decisions must be made by patients in consultation with their medical providers—not politicians

Strongly Disagree

Framing human embryos as persons directly threatens reproductive justice, bodily autonomy, and vital medical science. Artificial reproductive technologies like IVF rely on creating and discarding surplus embryos, and restricting this process undermines a person’s right to build a family on their own terms. Furthermore, embryonic stem cell research holds tremendous potential for lifesaving treatments for debilitating diseases. Granting legal personhood to embryos prioritizes ideological doctrine.

Elective abortion should be allowed under any circumstances chosen by the pregnant person, as bodily autonomy is a fundamental human right. Every individual deserves full authority over their healthcare without government or religious interference. Equal access to safe, legal abortion is essential to achieving gender equality and social justice.

Strongly Agree

Qualified providers should receive taxpayer funding, including Title X grants, because public investment in healthcare is essential for health equity. Funding enables low-income, uninsured, and marginalized communities to access vital healthcare—such as contraception, cancer screenings, STI testing, and prenatal care. Denying public funds to qualified providers is a politically motivated attack on low-income people that undermines public health and deepens systemic inequality.

Strongly Disagree

The Comstock Act, an archaic 1873 anti-vice law being weaponized to bypass Congress and impose a backdoor national abortion ban. The government should expand, not restrict, access to FDA-approved medication abortion, which is safe, effective, and essential for reproductive healthcare—especially for low-income and rural communities. Enforcing this outdated law tramples on bodily autonomy, overrides scientific consensus, and directly threatens health equity nationwide.

Strongly Agree

With over 30 years as a Realtor®, I know private property and free enterprise are vital to economic growth. Homeownership helps local families build stability and lasting generational wealth. However, markets only succeed when they are fair. We must balance the free market with common-sense rules to stop predatory private equity and monopolies from driving up our cost of living. Ultimately, our economy should reward the hardworking people who actually create the value, not just those at the top.

Strongly Agree

The wealthiest individuals and large corporations must pay their fair share of taxes to help support working families. Our current economic system has favored massive corporations and the ultra-wealthy for far too long. I support repealing tax cuts for the wealthy and closing corporate loopholes to fund vital investments in public education, healthcare, housing, and Social Security. At the same time, I advocate for a permanent "Cost of Living" tax cut to help working class families.

Strongly Disagree

Shrinking the budget takes away money for schools, healthcare, and clean energy that working families need every day. Taking away this support hurts kids and poor communities the most. If we want to lower our nation's debt, rich corporations and billionaires should just pay their fair share in taxes instead of taking away help from regular people.We need to return the system of checks and balances back to the government.

To stop government waste, my goal is to use my over 30 years of business experience to build a more accountable system. First, we must limit ICE's ballooning budget to its core mission. Second, we should cut corporate welfare by ending tax breaks to wealthy corporations. Third, I aim to protect whistleblowers who expose abuse. Finally, we need strict oversight on foreign military aid. We must restore the system of checks and balances back to the government and protect your tax dollars.

Strongly Agree

Businesses open to the public must serve everyone equally. Civil rights and public accommodation laws exist to protect vulnerable groups—including LGBTQ+ individuals and minorities—from being turned away or treated like second-class citizens. While freedom of religion is a fundamental right, it cannot be weaponized as a license to discriminate in commerce. Allowing personal beliefs to override non-discrimination laws creates a dangerous precedent that threatens equality for all.

Upholding the First Amendment means protecting religious freedom and the separation of church and state. My goal is to ensure the government never favors or penalizes anyone based on their beliefs. I aim to protect public education by opposing voucher programs that divert taxpayer dollars to private schools, protect civil rights for people of all faiths or no faith, and defend free expression from government overreach to ensure dignity and safety for all.

My view most closely matches B. Healthcare is a fundamental human right. I support a universal single-payer system where insurance is nationalized, but facilities can be privately owned and doctors self-employed. My goal is to guarantee public coverage while preserving private options, including worker-led health plans. We must lower costs so no one is trapped by medical debt.

Strongly Disagree

Government tracking of individual medical conditions violates fundamental privacy rights and bodily autonomy. Establishing a centralized registry creates severe risks of surveillance, data misuse, and corporate exploitation, while disproportionately harming marginalized groups. Policymakers can easily assess healthcare costs using anonymized, aggregated data without compromising patient confidentiality. Public health should focus on universal care and lower costs, not invasive databases.

My view most closely matches B. Foreign policy must be rooted in diplomacy, human rights, and accountability, not isolation or endless military interventions. We should strictly condition military assistance on compliance with the Geneva Conventions and international law to foster regional peace. The U.S. must lead with global compassion and cooperation rather than acting as a world bully.

Strongly Agree

The Chinese Communist Party poses serious challenges to American national security, technology, and workers through military expansion, state-sponsored cyberattacks, intellectual property theft, and unfair economic practices. Countering these threats requires a firm, strategic approach: strengthening international alliances, investing in domestic manufacturing, enforcing targeted sanctions for human rights abuses, and protecting critical infrastructure from foreign authoritarian influence.

A true alliance requires mutual accountability. Providing unconditional military support to Israel runs counter to U.S. interests. I support conditioning all military funding on strict compliance with international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions. We must enforce the Leahy Laws and Foreign Assistance Act, demand unimpeded humanitarian aid to Gaza, and support Palestinian self-determination alongside a secure two-state solution.

Strongly Disagree

Any form of violent extremism is a threat, but I reject the term "Islamic terrorism" because it unfairly associates a peaceful religion with the acts of extremists. This terminology fuels dangerous Islamophobia and hate crimes. True national security requires addressing the root causes of extremism and instability through strategic diplomacy, global cooperation, and foreign aid—not broad-brush bigotry.

Our immigration system must balance security with humanity. First, we need a clear roadmap to citizenship for Dreamers, DACA recipients, and long-term residents. Second, we must expand refugee and asylum processing by establishing federally sponsored Welcome Centers at the border. Third, we should automatically grant green cards to STEM advanced degree graduates from U.S. schools and create a "Founder Visa." Finally, we must expand seasonal work visas while protecting workers from labor abuse.

Strongly Disagree

Local governments should enforce laws equally and cooperate with federal immigration authorities to maintain public safety and the rule of law. While federal immigration policy urgently needs comprehensive reform, sanctuary policies undermine lawful systems and shift federal responsibilities onto local police. Instead of sanctuary cities, the focus must be on passing federal legislation that secures borders, enforces immigration laws, and creates fair, legal pathways to citizenship.

Strongly Disagree

Eliminating the Department of Education would dismantle federal funding and civil rights protections that guarantee equal opportunity. While local schools should control daily operations, we need federal oversight to protect special education and other Title programs, rural, and low-income districts. I oppose vouchers and aim to fully fund public schools so every child receives a safe, high-quality, and equitable education.

Strongly Agree

Foreign governments, especially authoritarian regimes, must be prohibited from funding American educational institutions. Allowing foreign state money into K-12 schools and universities creates national security risks, enables intellectual property theft, and invites foreign propaganda into classrooms. Protecting academic freedom and national security requires total transparency and strict limits to ensure American education remains free from foreign political influence.

Strongly Disagree

Denying age-appropriate, evidence-based care to transgender youth overrides the consensus of major medical organizations and harms vulnerable children. Health decisions belong to families and qualified doctors, not politicians. Framing medical care and social acceptance as "child abuse" dangerous, increases mental health risks for LGBTQ+ youth, and violates fundamental rights to compassionate healthcare.

Strongly Disagree

Marriage is a fundamental civil right and legal contract that must be granted equally to all couples. In a pluralistic democracy, no single religious definition of marriage should dictate civil law or deprive LGBTQ+ individuals of basic legal rights and dignities. The constitutional guarantee of equal protection under the law ensures marriage equality for everyone, protecting individual liberty while respecting freedom of religion for private institutions. Separate church and state.

My values are simple: “If you have it, share it; If people need it, give it.” My faith is rooted in service. Even since 2008, I have been a lead volunteer at Salem Lutheran Church, serving on the hospitality, children’s, and technology committees. Spiritually, I believe in showing up for others, guided by compassion, dignity, and solidarity. I also deeply respect the free exercise of religion, supporting the separation of church and state so all faiths are treated equally.

Strongly Agree

Voting is a fundamental civil right. Having worked in election administration—including on the Signature Verification and Ballot Board—I know firsthand how strict ID laws create administrative hurdles that suppress the vote, disproportionately disenfranchising seniors, students, and low-income communities. I oppose these restrictive barriers and support common-sense reforms to make voting fit real life, such as automatic registration and eventually, secure voting from our devices .

Strongly Disagree

Trans rights are human rights. Restricting transgender people from sports and public spaces promotes intolerance, ignorance, and cruelty against a vulnerable community. Exclusionary policies only serve to marginalize and ostracize trans individuals. I support the Equality Act and advocate for policies grounded in safety, dignity, and civil rights to protect the LGBTQ+ community from discrimination

Grid reliability requires diverse energy sources, integrating ERCOT into the national grid, and corporate accountability. Tech giants must pay their own way by funding off-grid clean energy, protecting residential grid capacity and utility budgets.

No.

No.

Moderate

I describe myself as committed to finding “purple solutions” to our nation’s challenges, as democracy is not a red or blue issue, it is a purple solution. While my values are rooted in ideals like treating healthcare as a human right and supporting unions, I believe governance must transcend partisanship. I draw on real-world negotiating experience to build coalitions and restore the system of checks and balances to Government to protect working families.

Strongly Agree

Protecting children from exploitation is a core responsibility of government. My platform champions strict ethical guardrails and tighter regulation on technology and AI to safeguard public safety, defend civil liberties, and prevent digital abuse. We must hold tech giants accountable and enforce robust federal protections that keep children safe from online predators and trafficking, ensuring a secure digital environment for the next generation.

To protect public safety, we must enact common-sense measures. I support banning military-style assault weapons (AR-15s), high-capacity magazines, ghost guns, and bump stocks. We need universal background checks, red flag laws, safe-storage mandates, raising the purchase age to 21, and ending permitless carry. Finally, we must protect local safety standards by continuing to oppose federal concealed carry reciprocity (H.R. 38), which I lobbied against with Everytown.