Tekesha's Experience

Tekesha is intimately acquainted with the shortcomings of our healthcare system. For long periods of her life, including when she originally ran for City Council in Hagerstown. She has long believed that healthcare is a human right.

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With a vision of ensuring that everyone feels heard and understood in their basic needs, she is devoted to working towards a healthcare system that truly cares for ALL of us.

As Congresswoman, Tekesha's goals will include:

• Catching up with the rest of the world by establishing a universal healthcare system like Medicare for All that guarantees access to quality, affordable care and ends the chokehold that private insurance companies have on public health. This should include primary and preventive care, prescription drugs, emergency and long-term care, mental health services, vision, and dental care.

• Guaranteeing the Right to Control Our Bodies by codifying Roe v. Wade into federal law, protecting reproductive healthcare workers, and more. (See: A Women's Agenda) 

• Reversing the restrictions on the federal government negotiating drug prices by passing the Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act, stopping Big Pharma from profiteering and price gouging Americans, especially when tax-payers are funding their research.

• Allowing for the importation of low-cost, safe, and approved prescription drugs by patients and pharmacists.

• Addressing the Black maternal mortality crisis by allocating specific resources, care, and attention to the populations that need it the most. (See: A Women's Agenda) 

• Passing the Nurse Staffing Standards for Hospital Patient Safety and Quality Care Act to address the staffing crisis by establishing minimum nurse-to-patient ratios for hospitals, protecting nurses who whistleblow concerning workplace and patient safety, and investing in nurse training and career development.

• Giving back to our nurses experiencing unprecedented levels of fatigue, depression, and burnout by building a targeted national mental healthcare program that establishes well-being standards for employers and provides practical, evidence-based resources.

• Ending gender-based price discrimination by passing the bipartisan Pink Tax Repeal Act to mandate that comparable products marketed to men and women must be priced equally. (See: A Women's Agenda) 

• Eliminating sales taxes applied to menstrual products like tampons and pads that are necessary for personal health and hygiene and guaranteeing the free provision of them to students in public schools and the incarcerated. (See: A Women's Agenda) 

• Advocating for a life-saving, comprehensive, evidence-based national sexual education standard that affirms our individual bodily freedoms and keeps young people informed on sexual health, contraceptives, reproductive care, and sexuality.

• Recognizing that women, especially mothers of color, are often disproportionately affected and bear deep trauma due to the opioid epidemic and substance abuse by committing to evidence-based recovery programs and attentive mental healthcare not only for those with addictions but for their families and those who care for them. (See: A Women's Agenda) 

• Addressing the high costs of education that are preventing students from entering the medical field to serve as much-needed doctors and nurses.