Joe Sestak in Survey of 2020 Presidential campaign websites

On Energy & Oil: Global warming is a grave threat to humanity and the planet

On Energy & Oil: Favors fee on polluters with Americans receiving dividend

On Abortion: Enshrine a woman's right to choose, in case Roe overturned

[My priorities include securing] reproductive rights and reproductive health services for all women.
• As a Congressman, I voted to make contraception a free preventive service for women.
• I co-sponsored legislation to fund family-planning programs and help teenagers and rape survivors access emergency contraception.
• I also co-sponsored legislation attempting to reduce adolescent pregnancy, HIV rates, and other sexually transmitted diseases through better sex education programs.

On Budget & Economy: Championed fiscally accountable "pay-as-you-go" legislation

He sponsored small business legislation for access to start-up capital, tax and regulatory relief, and workforce development, including initiating and passing legislation for a 35% increase in funding for Women's Business Centers.

On Corporations: Strengthen antitrust laws; stop corporate welfare

Priorities:
• Tax fairness, so corporations pay their fair share.
• Strengthen antitrust laws.
• Stop "corporate welfare," subsidizing industries such as fossil fuels and industrial agri-business, among so many others.
• Establish that personal data belongs to a person, not to a corporation or government.
• Develop appropriate regulations of nanotechnology, biotechnology, and artificial intelligence, because while these may have great potential, they are also ripe for abuse..

On Education: Subsidize tuition at public community colleges

Priorities:
• Increase access to higher education by providing states with grants to support tuition at community colleges and public universities.
• Reduce costs of higher education by making federal student aid and loans contingent upon each university keeping annual tuition increases at or below inflation.
• Restructure federal student loans so the government no longer makes a profit off of students attempting to improve themselves.
• Establish a national college credit transfer system.
• Create a "Training for a Lifetime" program to increase opportunities for job training and continuing education.

On Education: Support Common Core and expand pre-K

Priorities:
• Expand early childhood education to all 4-year-olds.
• Support state-led efforts like Common Core to create unified benchmarks for success.
• Increase broadband Internet connectivity across the country, especially in underserved rural and urban areas..

On Energy & Oil: Replace fossil fuel subsidies with fees for carbon polluters

Priorities:
• Re-join the Paris Accord and restoring our leadership role among the community of nations working together to fight climate change.
• Stop subsidizing fossil fuel industries.
• Implement a fee for carbon polluters, with proceeds being returned to all Americans as a dividend and also devoted to research & development in renewable energy and other climate-stabilizing strategies.
• Establish a permanent moratorium on all future offshore drilling and Arctic drilling, including in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge..

On Environment: Ratify the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol

Priorities:
• Ratify the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol committing countries around the world to phasing out the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).
• Give the EPA full authority to regulate substances (like HFCs) that contribute to global warming, as it has authority to regulate ozone-depleting substances.
• Stop subsidizing destructive industrial farming practices, and dramatically increase support for carbon-sequestering regenerative agriculture.
• Restore the National Monuments and other public lands opened to extractive industries by the current administration.
• Renew our commitment to fighting deforestation, habitat destruction, and illegal poaching of endangered species around the world..

On Families & Children: Increase nutrition assistance for needy families

Priorities:
• Increase nutrition assistance for needy families.
• Improve federal housing policy to fight homelessness.
• Hold municipalities accountable for providing clean drinking water to all residents.
• Fight racism and discrimination in all its forms, as these all too often conspire to keep people poor.
• Fix our healthcare system by restoring the Affordable Care Act and advancing it with a public option. Let its success lay the groundwork for a transition to a national healthcare system.
• Create more high-quality jobs through a national infrastructure plan and increased support for small businesses..

On Families & Children: Authored successful increase in funding for autism

He advanced seniors' quality of life - including authoring and passing the first Elder Abuse Victims legislation in 17 years--and veterans' educational and healthcare expansion.

On Foreign Policy: Strengthen our alliances; other countries are interconnected

I know--deep down in my gut--that America's prosperity at home is inextricably tied to economic development, stability, and peace abroad. As President, I will work to strengthen our alliances, modernize our military, and ensure peace and security for all Americans.

On Foreign Policy: Reverse America's retreat from the global community

Priorities:
• Reverse America's retreat from the global community with a strategy of engagement, and restore our standing in the world.
• Repair our fractured relationships with our closest allies.
• Stand up to belligerent actors on the world stage, from Russia to China to North Korea.
• Establish closer economic ties with countries around the world, because countries that trade and do business with each other are much less likely to fight wars..

On Free Trade: Stop using tariffs as weapon in disputes with China

It is imperative that we be in a position to compete with China, our only major economic rival, for their business. China is rapidly pursuing economic expansion around the globe, but without the same standards for the environment, labor rights, and intellectual property enforcement that our societal norms and values rightly demand.

On Free Trade: Re-join the Trans-Pacific Partnership

On Government Reform: Stop corporate abuses of lobbying power

Priorities:
• Lobbying reform to put an end to the undue influence of corporate lobbying.
• Overturn the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, because corporations are not people and money is not speech.
• Reinstate Net Neutrality to keep the Internet a level playing field.
• Address intellectual property theft and cyberspace security which result in both companies and foreign countries (in particular China) threatening American enterprise and security..

On Gun Control: Strong proponent of common sense gun laws

I also believe we must once again ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines. Having served in the armed forces for over thirty years, I know what weapons of war are, and I know that they do not belong in American communities. The horrifying mass shootings of recent years should be all the proof our lawmakers need to finally take action.

On Health Care: Our health system saved my daughter; let's make it a right

On Health Care: Add public option to ObamaCare

Priorities:
• Restore the Affordable Care Act and advance it with a public option to expand access to health insurance.
• Let the success of the public option in cost and quality serve as incentive for the eventual transition of choice to a national healthcare system and begin laying the groundwork for a credible approach to such a system, modeled after the Veterans Health Administration, to establish comprehensive and integrated care across the country.
• Allow Medicare to bargain for the best drug prices directly with the pharmaceutical industry.
• Permit re-importation of less expensive drugs from Canada, while stopping big drug companies from "paying-for-the-delay" of cheaper generic drugs.
• Fix our broken mental health system beginning with full enforcement of the Mental Health Parity Act and key provisions of the Affordable Care Act.
• Remedy our shortage of nurses & doctors, particularly primary care physicians, as we change to integrated national healthcare..

On Homeland Security: First 3-star Admiral elected to Congress

Joe served as President Clinton's Director for Defense Policy on the National Security Council in the White House, the first Director of the Navy's strategic anti-terrorism unit (Deep Blue) after 9/11, and the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Warfare Requirements responsible for the Navy's five year $350 billion warfare requirements.

On Homeland Security: Reduce size of navy from 375 to 260 ships

On Homeland Security: More funding for veterans and for cyberspace

Priorities:
• Re-join the Iranian nuclear deal to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
• Modernize our military by focusing on the capability of cyberspace and no longer measuring our prowess by force structure numbers alone.
• Emphasize the importance of dominating cyberspace, in the realms of both cyber-security & cyber-warfare.
• Support all of our military servicemembers, including LGBT heroes.
• Provide better services and opportunities for our returning veterans..

On Homeland Security: Reduce number of carrier strike groups from 11 to 9

On Immigration: Create a path to naturalization for undocumented immigrants

Priorities:
• Pass comprehensive immigration reform legislation.
• Secure our borders with smart technology such as drones and sensors, and sections of fencing where needed and appropriate.
• Increase guest worker visas and oversight of guest worker programs.
• Increase numbers of skilled immigrants, especially in STEM fields.
• Create a path to naturalization for undocumented immigrants willing to pay back taxes, pass criminal background checks, prove gainful employment, and pass a basic English language test.
• End the shameful practice of separating children from their parents or guardians.
• Restore dignity to immigrants and asylum-seekers in detention.
• Grant all immigrants and asylum-seekers the right to an attorney
• Assure timely due process for all immigrants and asylum-seekers.
• Work with the international community and explore innovative solutions to address the root causes of migration, including climate change, violence, corruption, and poverty..

On Immigration: Broken system can only be fixed by comprehensive reform

On Jobs: Top priority is quality jobs with fair wages

Priorities:
• Rebuilding America's crumbling infrastructure.
• Supporting small businesses as the primary engine of economic growth.
• Investing in American manufacturing.
• Developing new sustainable industries to fight climate change.
• Educating workers for the jobs of the future with a national commitment to workforce "Training for a Lifetime."
• Establishing fair trade deals with foreign countries.

On Jobs: Supports Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

On Principles & Values: Walked 422 miles across Pennsylvania, in Senate campaign

However, the Democratic Senate leadership directed Joe to "stop walking and just fundraise." When Joe demurred, the Democratic leadership sought a primary opponent, funneling over $6 million into false opposition ads that the Washington Post assigned its highest rating of falsity, to win the primary, but losing the general election.

On Social Security: Protect Medicare, Social Security, and Consumer Finance

Priorities:
• Protect Medicare and Social Security.
• Put a stop to elder abuse.
• Support seniors who want to receive long-term care at home.
• Increase funding to fight diseases of the elderly, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and cancer.
• Reduce costs of prescription drugs by allowing Medicare to negotiate for the lowest drug prices.
• Restore to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau its full powers so it can adequately monitor companies and protect against fraud, scams, and predatory lending.
• Create more opportunities for senior advancement and community involvement..

On Technology: Invest $1 trillion in infrastructure expansion over 10 years

I also propose the creation of a national infrastructure bank that would finance a wide range of infrastructure projects by providing public loan guarantees to encourage private capital to make market-based investments in partnership with local, state, regional, and federal entities. This concept is rooted in the recognition that public resources are limited and that securing private-sector partners as investors in our shared national venture--provided there are benchmarks for accountability along the way and fair systems in place to assure public use--will help us make the sweeping upgrades necessary to shore up critical infrastructure across our country.

On Technology: Reprioritized defense funding toward cyberspace

On War & Peace: Immediately rejoin the Iran nuclear deal

On Welfare & Poverty: War on Poverty made real improvements; let's do more