With the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe vs. Wade, Derek will defend women’s health and women’s rights in Congress. As the father of a young daughter, Derek is 100% pro-choice and will stand strong to protect funding for Planned Parenthood and access to critical women’s health services like birth control and cancer screenings.

Derek believes healthcare should be a right, not a privilege. The owner of a local pharmacy along with his wife, Derek has helped people in his community get access to lifesaving medicine and understands the challenges people are facing trying to afford care for their families. He’ll take on the big insurance and pharmaceutical companies to rein in the high cost of healthcare and prescription drugs and expand Medicare so that everyone has access to quality, affordable health care.

Derek is committed to standing with workers. As a workers’ rights attorney, Derek protected workers by going after corporations who put their profits over the fair treatment of immigrants, survivors of sexual harassment, and victims of workplace discrimination. Derek will fight to make the minimum wage a living wage so families can keep up with rising costs, advocate for safer working conditions and ensure all workers can secure affordable housing for their families and a secure retirement.

Derek believes education is the key to unlocking opportunity and a brighter future. The father of three young children in public schools and a youth mentor for kids in need, Derek will fight to ensure every child has a quality education by working to raise wages for teachers, investing in community public schools, supporting programs like early childhood education that give students more opportunities to succeed, and providing more vocational education and job training.