Sean Casten in Survey of 2018 House campaign websites
On Abortion:
Keep birth control affordable and accessible
We must support and expand women's rights and opportunities. Keep birth control affordable and accessible.
Defend and restore access to safe, legal abortions. Stand with Planned Parenthood by supporting the important work they do in providing essential health and reproductive care.
Source: 2018 IL-6 House campaign website CastenForCongress.com
May 5, 2020
On Civil Rights:
Support LGBT Americans who want to serve in the military
Support the inclusion of all qualified Americans who want to serve their country in the military. I will protect the rights of LGBT members who are bravely serving in our military and I oppose President Trump's ban on transgender service in
the military as unnecessary and discriminatory. The military has long been at the forefront of equal opportunity, recognizing that the best military employs the best people--not just the ones that fit a specific racial, gender or sexuality profile.
Source: 2018 IL-6 House campaign website CastenForCongress.com
May 5, 2020
On Civil Rights:
LGBTQ rights are human rights
LGBTQ rights are human rights, period. Support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act to ensure that LGBTQ workers cannot be discriminated against in the workplace and hiring process. Support the Equality Act, which will expand upon
our civil rights legislation to ensure non-discrimination protections against LGBTQ Americans in "employment, housing, credit, education, public spaces and services, federally funded programs, and jury service."
Source: 2018 IL-6 House campaign website CastenForCongress.com
May 5, 2020
On Crime:
Restore voting rights to non-violent offenders
Restore voting rights to non-violent offenders. America is a place where one can redeem themselves and earn a second chance at success, even after breaking the law.
Once someone has done their time and paid their debts to society, they should regain the right to vote. A chief role of our criminal justice system is rehabilitation and preparation for successful re-entry into the community.
Source: 2018 IL-6 House campaign website CastenForCongress.com
May 5, 2020
On Education:
Chipping away at the public school system has consequences
Chipping away at the public school system has societal consequences. The government's role should be to make the public school system as good as it can possibly be. It should not be to grease the paths for the most wealthy or
intelligent to exit the system. Current policy creates a race to the bottom, leaving the public schools with the hardest work and the fewest resources. We must recommit to providing universal and high-quality public education to all.
I actively oppose any policies that direct public schools to adopt anti-scientific curricula. Evolution should be taught in public schools. So, too, for climate change and other settled scientific concepts and principles.
I support a reintroduction of civics into middle and high school curricula. We should require that all high school students graduate with a common understanding of U.S. history and civics.
Source: 2018 IL-6 House campaign website CastenForCongress.com
May 5, 2020
On Energy & Oil:
Support nationwide CO2 regulation
Support nationwide CO2 regulation, governed by three goals: (1) incentivize the most rapid possible reduction in greenhouse gas emissions; (2) given scarce resources, favor the most cost-effective greenhouse gas reductions available; and (3) encourage
the construction of the capital-intensive assets needed to overhaul and modernize our energy system. These three goals are paramount and are vastly more important than models that penalize CO2 emitters.
Source: 2018 IL-6 House campaign website CastenForCongress.com
May 5, 2020
On Families & Children:
Advocate for paid parental leave
Advocate for paid parental leave so new parents have time to spend with their newborn babies. Support legislation protecting pregnant women from discrimination at work and in the hiring process.
Support the Paycheck Fairness Act, which empowers women in gender pay disputes and improves avenues of recourse. Support legislation to remove the ratification deadline in the Equal Rights Amendment.
Source: 2018 IL-6 House campaign website CastenForCongress.com
May 5, 2020
On Government Reform:
Incentivize states to adopt automatic voter registration
We need an international framework to create unambiguous lines and an international consensus on how to deal with future cyber attacks--political or otherwise.
I would convene relevant experts from the Department of Defense and the National Security Agency to do a full vetting of voting machine technology to 'hack-proof' our election systems from foreign or domestic interference.
Incentivize all states to adopt automatic voter registration to ensure a fully representative democracy. Rather than seeking to restrict or repress the right to vote, we should embrace a national policy of encouraging all who are eligible to
exercise their franchise. Restore the provisions of the Voting Rights Act that were gutted by the Shelby v Holder decision. This decision has encouraged some state-level authorities to disenfranchise poor, minority and student voters.
Source: 2018 IL-6 House campaign website CastenForCongress.com
May 5, 2020
On Government Reform:
Move Election Day to the weekend
Move Election Day to the weekend. Getting out to the polls can be hard regardless of what day of the week it is--especially for parents working multiple jobs or lacking access to adequate transportation. Keeping Election Day on
Tuesday makes it even harder for more Americans who work regular hours. We should move federal elections to the weekend, to give the more families the most flexibility to exercise their right to vote.
Source: 2018 IL-6 House campaign website CastenForCongress.com
May 5, 2020
On Gun Control:
Bring back the Assault Weapons Ban
I'll support bringing back the Assault Weapons Ban. I will advocate for laws that allow the ATF to store gun records in searchable, electronic records to bring law enforcement into the 20th (much less 21st) century. I'll support the Protecting
Domestic Violence and Stalking Victims Act, banning access to lethal weapons for offenders who have been convicted of domestic violence or who are under a restraining order (H.R. 2670). I'll support a national ban on high-capacity magazines.
I'll support laws to close the gun show loophole. I'll support "no fly no buy" rules to prohibit gun sales to suspected terrorists on the federal no-fly list. I'll support repeal of the "Dickey Amendment," which forbids the
Center for Disease Control from studying gun violence in the United States. Anyone who opposes these sensible regulations on Second Amendment grounds is simply wrong.
Source: 2018 IL-6 House campaign website CastenForCongress.com
May 5, 2020
On Health Care:
Make the VA a leader in national health care reform
Make the VA a leader in national health care reform by filling the estimated 30,000 vacancies with qualified doctors and medical staff, employing improved technology, and continuing to reduce wait times at VA health facilities.
Update the medical record-keeping system to include modernization of the VA's and Department of Defense's IT healthcare systems as well as integrate the DOD and VA networks in order to ease the transfer of care.
Expand mental health services for veterans and servicemembers to meet the urgent mental health needs of our veterans. The risk of suicide among veterans is, alarmingly,
22 percent higher than the rate among civilians. This crisis calls for an immediate increase in coordination between the Department of Defense and the VA.
Source: 2018 IL-6 House campaign website CastenForCongress.com
May 5, 2020
On Health Care:
We need a base level of health care coverage
We need to add a taxpayer-funded, means-tested base level of health care coverage--means-tested to make sure that this base coverage is only available to those who don't have health coverage through their employers, unions, V.A. office,
Medicare, Medicaid, or personal wealth. We should also ensure that anyone who doesn't qualify for this taxpayer-funded plan has the option to buy into that plan.
We must allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices, as the V.A. and for-profit health providers already do. We need to take a much more aggressive posture against the extension of patents and re-purposing of drugs
for new diseases that serves only to extend the profit margin of those drugs long after pharmaceutical companies have recouped their initial investment.
Source: 2018 IL-6 House campaign website CastenForCongress.com
May 5, 2020
On Immigration:
Protect Dreamers, border wall is an expensive waste
We must pass legislation to formally approve DACA and protect immigrants who entered the country as children from removal by future presidents (e.g., through the DREAM Act).We must secure our borders--but we also must recognize that the bulk of
undocumented immigrants to the U.S. are visa overstays, not illegal border crossings. Border walls are an expensive waste of resources paid by U.S. taxpayers, not Mexico as Donald Trump promised.
We must close private immigration detention centers. We detain too many immigrants in facilities that dehumanize them and harken back to dark days of Japanese internment camps. We are better than that as a country. We must limit the ability
of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to interject themselves into local law enforcement. Local police forces almost unanimously oppose the federal overreach that ICE has applied to compel disclosure of immigration status.
Source: 2018 IL-6 House campaign website CastenForCongress.com
May 5, 2020
On Technology:
Infrastructure is one of the best investments we can make
Infrastructure is one of the best investments we can make, because those jobs can't be outsourced. We need an infrastructure package that invests both federal dollars and private capital to build critical and necessary bridges, roads, power plants,
and industrial facilities that will provide decades of future value. These are the things that are going to help the economy and the middle class--not huge tax cuts skewed to the very wealthy.
Source: 2018 IL-6 House campaign website CastenForCongress.com
May 5, 2020
Page last updated: Mar 17, 2022