Katie Jones

Criminal Justice / Public Safety

Prevent hate crimes. Everyone deserves to be able to live their lives free of discrimination and violence. Our State must pursue evidence-based policies to track, prevent, and address crimes motivated by hate and bias. Our State must also play a role in promoting and defending inclusivity, acceptance, and equity. Learn more

Hold industry accountable for pollutants. Those who live in our city and State's most polluted environments are disproportionately people of color and Minnesotans living in poverty. Our communities should never bear the burden and harmful impacts caused by corporate producers and our State must play an active role in holding them accountable. Learn more

Protect our most vulnerable community members. With the rise of extremism and targeted attacks on the queer community, I believe our State should continue to lead the nation on protecting LGTBQ rights. We must also prioritize student safety. That means keeping guns out of our schools, protecting kids from bullying, supporting mental healthcare, and ensuring that adults, including School Resource Officers, are prevented from using dangerous restraints on kids. Learn more

End cash bail. Learn more

Ensure that our cities are fully funded. Local Government Aid (LGA) is a critical tool at the State level that supports city government by providing funds for local public safety responses. By fully funding our cities, we can make sure local decision makers have the resources needed to advocate for appropriate responses for people in crisis, and focus efforts on prevention. Learn more

Fund public defenders. Justice shouldn’t be decided by how much money is in a person's bank account. Minnesota needs to continue investing in our public defense system -- this includes not just ensuring everyone has access to a lawyer with a reasonable caseload but legal support teams with social workers, investigators, and paralegals. Learn more

Invest in prevention. Public safety begins by ensuring people’s everyday needs are being addressed and by putting market structures in place that drive the outcomes we want. This includes fully funding our schools, investing in programming for teenagers, and regulating copper recycling such that stealing wiring from light poles and other infrastructure is less attractive. Learn more

Support re-entry programs. We must think comprehensively about public safety and create opportunities for Minnesotans exiting the criminal justice system to re-enter society. Programs like Better Futures MN, whose services my family has used, provide one great model. By giving people the tools they need to succeed, like access to stable housing and livable wages, we can reduce recidivism and build thriving communities. Learn more

Education

Protect the freedom to read and think. That means protecting our libraries from extremist book bans that work to censor our nation’s history and harm to our communities by erasing LGBTQ representation. It also recognizes that an important step in achieving justice and equality in education includes all students seeing themselves represented in their curriculum as well as being exposed to different identities beyond their own. Learn more

Maintain healthy and comfortable school buildings. That means investing in climate-friendly heating, cooling, and ventilation systems and protecting students from toxins like lead and PFAS. This is a climate and environmental justice issue. Especially as our seasons shift and bring more extreme heat earlier in the year, we must make sure that our schools can stay open and be equipped to provide comfortable and safe learning environments for our students. Learn more

Protect the well-being of our children. With youth rates of depression and anxiety at all time highs, it is critical that we prioritize mental health. Schools should have the resources they need for their students to thrive socially and emotionally, including access to school counselors, social workers, and psychologists. Learn more

Make childcare and early childhood education in our State more accessible and affordable for working families. Learn more

Ensure our public schools are fully funded and fiscally sound. Learn more

Environment / Energy

Our State cannot afford anything less than the climate leadership we’ve known from our district. I’m ready to continue that work, and expand on it to build our State’s resiliency in the face of a changing climate. My leadership is rooted in climate advocacy, having worked and volunteered for over a decade within our community to take measures that protect our environment, make the sustainable choice an easy, accessible choice, and tackle the leading contributors of greenhouse gasses: transportation and housin. Learn more

We lead the nation fighting climate change and ensuring environmental sustainability. Learn more

Guns

Take action on gun violence. The gun violence epidemic has taken too many lives, brought terror into our lives in places that have been trusted as safe spaces. Last year, our Minneapolis community tragically experienced this in our own backyard. We must continue to pass legislation that prevents gun violence by banning AR-15s, strengthen safe storage laws, and fully passing universal background checks. Learn more

Housing

Reduce sprawl. Land is a limited resource and urban sprawl eats at our valuable farmland and our beautiful natural resources. It also puts people further away from jobs, friends, activities, and amenities making people lonelier and our democracy less robust. That’s why I support building the right homes in the right places, including filling in the missing middle housing options, making sure we have diverse housing types within neighborhoods for the diverse needs of the people of the district and MN. Learn more

Acknowledge the current realities of modern work. Whenever I visit downtown, I see large empty office towers that were created at a time when in-person office work was the norm. I am interested in working with partners to find ways to convert office towers to housing, community, and amenity spaces that serve our current culture and meet needs. Learn more

Invest in community land trusts. Community land trusts keep housing affordable and in local control. Learn more

Strengthen renters rights. Learn more

As a State legislator I want to make sure that the city and county agencies have what they need to be successful, including funding for key resources and tools to take a collective approach to solving this problem. That means abundant housing options, supports for disability, mental health and substance abuse, and addressing the bottleneck of case workers tasked with helping individuals and families find stability. Learn more

Infrastructure / Transportation

Address safety on public transit. With the newly implemented transit ambassador program, we have an opportunity to evaluate novel approaches and strengthen areas needed to maintain safety, reduce disruptions, and help people in need navigate available resources. Learn more

Wages / Job Benefits

Increase our statewide minimum wage. Our city has led the way by setting a nearly 16 minimum wage, but statewide workers are only guaranteed 8-10 an hour adjusted for inflation, which is insufficient. Learn more

Support economic development in our district to achieve thriving business nodes. I will champion a grant program for our district that will allow our small businesses to stay afloat during road reconstructions, so we can make the necessary improvements to our streets while keeping businesses intact. Learn more

End employment discrimination and close pay gaps. Here in Minnesota, right wing efforts calling for exemptions to fair employment practices threaten the rights of our trans community members. We must continue to push back by taking proactive steps to ensure employment transparency and accountability. Learn more

Support collective bargaining. Union organizing protects workers from exploitation, increases wages and benefits, and improves the lives of all workers, even those who are not part of a union. I will fight to protect and expand workers’ rights to collectively bargain, in both the public and private sectors. Learn more

Protect our most vulnerable workers and ensure they have livable wages. Learn more

We also need to fairly compensate our teachers, first responders, and nurses that are the fabric of our communities, and identify structural barriers to doing so. Learn more

Support fair scheduling practices that will allow Minnesotans to plan their days and weeks, anticipate their income, take leave as needed, and balance work and life. Learn more

Must create a fair, competitive marketplace. For a more just and resilient economy in Minnesota, our State must address corporate consolidation that prevents consumers and small business owners from participating in a fair, competitive marketplace. To do this, we must advance anti-trust and anti-monopoly legislation to remove unchecked advantages of a small few from dominating our economy. Learn more