Deval Patrick
Former Governor, Massachusetts
Opportunity
Racial Wealth Gap
Deval Patrick’s campaign platform does not address the racial wealth gap, but in his “Opportunity Agenda” he states:
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“Take income inequality. Beyond the redistribution others are talking about, expanding the economic pie and enabling more people to earn and to own a greater share of it is critical. And we need to be “all in” on a growth strategy that reaches every part of the country — not just in major cities on the coasts, and not just for folks with advanced degrees. Improving economic mobility — the fair chance for people now and in future generations to live their American Dream — is the lasting answer to economic inequality.”
Affordable Housing
Deval Patrick addresses affordable housing in “Promoting and Creating Affordable Housing”. He says, “The first step to making housing more affordable is to dramatically increase our housing stock… America urgently needs millions more affordable housing units. I will work to allocate the billions of dollars needed to make that happen, using the entire force of the federal government to make sure that the stock of affordable housing in America can finally meet the demand. We will offer federal grants for improvements to existing public and affordable housing, including by increasing funding for the National Housing Trust Fund, with emphasis on climate-friendly and energy-efficient projects.”
Access to High Quality Education
Deval Patrick addresses access to high quality education in his “Opportunity Agenda”. His agenda will:
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Provide “free from pre-K to community college or the first two years of a 4-year college, free or reduced thereafter (depending on a person’s having participated in national service, about which we will say more in our Democracy Agenda), and affordable through life-long workforce development and retraining. In a knowledge-based economy, such as ours is becoming, education is the single best investment we can make in our own collective future.”
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He also states: “So that they are free or at least affordable, public colleges and universities should be publicly funded.”
Environmental Equity
Deval Patrick addresses environmental equity in his “Opportunity Agenda”. Patrick says, “Moving to a carbon-free future also presents enormous opportunities for us to lead research, development, and commercialization of alternative energy, energy efficiency and energy storage—and we will address these opportunities at length in my forthcoming proposal to address the climate emergency.” Patrick also says his administration would: “incentivize employee ownership and profit sharing, and impact investing, so citizens have real opportunities to build wealth and business takes a stakeholder approach to long-term value, accounting for its impact on workers, the community and the environment as well as owners.”
Health Equity
Deval Patrick addresses health equity in his “Reform Agenda”. The agenda will:
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Support and expand “a public option within the Affordable Care Act, one that is free to some and low cost to others, and that could even be modeled on Medicare.”
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“Engage a broad coalition of stakeholders, from health providers and policymakers to patient advocates to refine and propose improvements as we learn — the very formula that made it possible in Massachusetts to deliver health insurance to nearly 99% of our residents.”
Transportation Access
Deval Patrick’s campaign platform does not address transportation access, but in his “Opportunity Agenda”, he me mentions transportation:
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“After education, we should focus on innovation because it is our competitive edge in the world. That means cultivating industries like clean tech, precision manufacturing, robotics, gaming, cybersecurity, transportation, green construction and biotech, urban agriculture, and regenerative and organic farming, biofuels, and soil carbon sequestration to name just a few of the economic revolutions underway or within our grasp.”
Justice
Bail/Prison Reform
Deval Patrick addresses bail/prison reform in his “Opportunity Agenda”. His agenda will put:
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“End to private prisons”
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“End to the criminal prohibition on marijuana, treating those dealing with substance use disorders as patients instead of criminals.
Re-Entry Services
Deval Patrick addresses re-entry services in his “Opportunity Agenda”. His agenda will:
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“Prepare them to re-enter productive life.”
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Call for a “revival of parole and other programs to prepare the incarcerated for their release.”
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Call for “sentence reform that provides non-violent drug offenders a real chance at re-entering society
Ending Capital Punishment
Deval Patrick’s campaign platform does not address ending the death penalty. However he has expressed his views on the issue:
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“The death penalty does not work. I believe in life without possibility of parole.”
Expanding Gun Safety Measures
Deval Patrick addresses expanding gun safety measur
es in his “Opportunity Agenda”. His agenda will:
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“Require, at a minimum, universal background checks and a ban on assault weapons and retrofits like bump stocks, coupled with a voluntary buyback initiative. And it requires support for research on the cause and sources of gun violence.
Improving Police-Community Relations
Deval Patrick’s campaign platform does not address improving police-community relations. However he has expressed his views on the issue:
“The expectations of official behavior are higher. You don’t get to be unaccountable in an official capacity,” Patrick said. “It’s hard in these times to talk about that. Because it sounds to some that you are dishonoring the role of law enforcement and being unrealistic about how hard the job is. I certainly am not. We need it. You could argue, and many rightly do, that the folks on the South Side of Chicago need [law enforcement] even more.”
For Patrick, the solution to this problem starts when police “get out of their cruisers and start to build relationships with members of the community, relationships of trust,” even though he acknowledges that bringing about this change will not be easy.
Democracy
Voting Rights
Deval Patrick addresses voting rights in his “Make Voting Accessible and More Secure” issue page. His plan will:
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“Create early voting and voting by mail or online.”
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“Update the Voting Rights Act.”
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“Replace aging and vulnerable machines with the most secure technology.”
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“Make Election Day a federal holiday.”
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“End felon disenfranchisement.”
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“Expand language options for ballots at polling locations.”
Access to Voter Registration
Deval Patrick addresses access to voter registration in his “Make Voting Accessible and More Secure” issue page. His plan will:
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Explore “Automatic or same day voter registration.”
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“Engage a joint state-federal effort to incentivize states to expand access to the ballot.”
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“Boost student voting on campuses by partnering with institutions of higher education.”
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“Pre-registration of young people below the age of 18.”
Gerrymandering
Deval Patrick addresses gerrymandering in his “Strengthen Democratic Institutions” issue page. His plan will:
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“Limit hyper-partisanship by setting a national standard and establishing clear guidelines for drawing districts.”
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“Pass a law requiring that each state draw Congressional districts through an independent, non-partisan body.”
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“Direct the Justice Department to challenge partisan gerrymandering to the fullest extent possible under the law.”
Census 2020
Deval Patrick addresses the 2020 Census in his “Strengthen Democratic Institutions”. His plan will:
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“Protect the Census.”
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“Reverse the Trump Administration’s political meddling in the census process and establish formal rules to protect the census from politics in the future.”