I grew up as the child of a Navy Captain during the Iraq War. Some of my earliest memories are of my mother being deployed to Iraq and not knowing if she would return. As I grew, I learned that our political leaders lied us into the Iraq War and that my family’s sacrifice was not for our country’s security but for the benefit of special interests. As a humanitarian aid worker and international development specialist, I have witnessed the immense destruction that conflict brings to the lives of innocent people and vulnerable communities, including conflicts that the United States has instigated. Our country’s continued participation in violent conflicts is morally abhorrent and economically wasteful. As a pacifist, I am prepared to go to Washington DC, challenge the war-profiters, and risk my political career to reform US foreign policy to promote a peaceful world. As your representative, I will work to end all foreign wars, bring our troops home, and transition to a foreign policy based on peace through the following pro-peace policies:

- Utilizing War Powers resolutions in Congress to end all foreign wars and bring our troops home.

- Repealing the Authorization for the Use of Military Force, which authorizes the President to start wars without authorization from Congress.

- Cutting the US defense budget in half, primarily through ending US participation in foreign conflicts, closing US military bases overseas, and eliminating exorbitant contracts with defense companies.

- Increasing funding for the US Agency for International Development and US State Department public diplomacy programs.

- Ending the expiring US military leases in Hawai’i, including the Pohakuloa Training Area, the Poamoho Training Area, the Kahuku Training Area, and the Makua Military Reservation.

- Requiring the US Military to return land stolen from the Kingdom of Hawai’i to the Hawaiian people.

- Establishing a $1 billion federal fund for an expedited cleanup of polluted military sites in Hawai’i, such as Kaho’olawe.

- Renewing treaties with other nuclear-armed states to reduce the global supply of nuclear weapons and prohibiting the US Military from stationing nuclear weapons in Hawai’i.