Showing Up for Racial Justice SWFL e-mailed all candidates for U.S. Congress FL-District 19 a questionnaire on issues relating to racial justice. (To see candidate responses from other races on the ballot in Southwest Florida, click here.)

Responses were received from:

Cindy Banyai (Democrat)

David Holden (Democrat)

The following candidates in this primary race did not respond:

Darren Dione Aquino (Republican)

Casey Askar (Republican)

Byron Donalds (Republican)

Dane Eagle (Republican)

William Figlesthaler (Republican)

Randy Henderson (Republican)

Daniel Kowal (Republican)

Christy McLaughlin (Republican)

Dan Severson (Republican)

Below are the responses from the candidates who responded to our questionnaire.

1. Do you support the Movement for Black Lives?

Cindy Banyai: Yes

David Holden: Yes

BANYAI: I have been following the movement from the beginning and have been proud to support and connect with local leaders and organizers of the movement in Southwest Florida.

HOLDEN: The Movement for Black Lives should genuinely be a litmus test. It speaks to generations of promises for equality and justice left unfulfilled. The work of an officeholder in terms of BLM is to facilitate both difficult conversations and move tangible actions forward. That means re-directing police budgets and resources but also shifting how police are recruited, trained, and supervised. More than simply policing and criminal justice reform (though important, are not synonymous with BLM) we must fight to end systemic racism by addressing the legacy of racist housing practices, educational disparities, health outcomes, access to financial resources and services (loans, mortgages, financial planning, investment capital, etc.). Each of these tangible policies must work to address race-based poverty, but also cultural tendencies that work to erase, diminish, or villainize Black trauma, experience, and accomplishments.

2. Are you committed to identifying and eliminating racial disparities within the jurisdiction or scope of the elected office for which you seek?

Cindy Banyai: Yes

David Holden: Yes

BANYAI: I am committed to putting an equity lens on each piece of legislation and ensure a data-informed approach to root out and eliminate systemic racism.

HOLDEN: There are national initiatives which seek to address and eliminate racial disparities, but they are too often tied only to police brutality or understood strictly in terms of criminal justice. For clarity’s sake, I’d like to reaffirm my support for the Justice in Policing Act, an increased focus on the DOJ’s civil rights division investigations into police misconduct, and an end to the for-profit prison industry. In addition, however, we must understand as a country that true racial justice is intersectional and far reaching. White supremacy is entangled in patriarchy, heteronormativity, our understanding of land rights — plus innumerable other intersections. These intersections are also local in scope, frequently occurring at the county and sheriff level. This is why it’s incredibly important for your federal representatives to have strong and transparent relationships with local officials. For example, Lee County does not require body cameras for their deputies. Since the local sheriffs and County Commission lack the will to instate them at the local level, federal laws like the Justice in Policing Act can overrule these omissions. The scope of my office must include an understanding of local issues by forging relationships with local officials. It is also important that a Member of Congress use their office as a spotlight and megaphone to bring attention to issues beyond a strictly federal scope.

3. Investments in social services and community programs consistently have shown to reduce poverty and crime. Do you support reducing the budgets of law enforcement agencies and reallocating funds to social services and community programs?

Cindy Banyai: Yes

David Holden: Yes

BANYAI: I have been a long-time proponent of participatory budgeting to allowing for alignment of public funds with the needs and desires of the local community. The increasing police budgets to make up for a lack of investment in social services is not appropriate, neither is the militarization of police departments. I will end subsidies for military-grade equipment to police.

HOLDEN: As noted above, many budgeting issues are addressed on the hyper local level. Now, federal agencies can withhold funds and refuse the Bush era initiatives to militarize the police (and certainly the current push for federal stormtroopers to illegally detain people for graffiti). States have “police power” which limits how the federal government can reform these local budgets and how they’re allocated. There are 18,000 policing agencies that do not report to the federal government, so in office I’ll be limited in scope. It’s very important to know these little facts, because officials can pass feel-good federal legislation that doesn't actually change policing as a whole. So while I vehemently agree that we must take police out of schools, understand addiction and alcoholism as public health issues instead of criminal enforcement issues, and have trained, appropriate professionals respond to mental health and domestic violence situations, the federal government cannot pretend to be the end all and be all in policy. While we’re pushing for federal policies, Collier County has had a dedicated social services budget of $0 since 1994, as a matter of policy!

4. Do you support efforts for increased accountability and public transparency for law enforcement officers who engage in improper policing, excessive and deadly use of force, and other instances of brutality against citizens?

Cindy Banyai: Yes

David Holden: Yes

BANYAI: As an evaluator, I will also advocate for accountability and transparency.

HOLDEN: This is why the database in the Justice in Policing Act is so important. A new study by Yale released this year shows that at any given year, about 1,100 Florida officers are hired after being fired from other jurisdictions. The study also noted these officers tend to police in smaller, less well funded areas — overwhelmingly those that represent communities of color. Tamir Rice’s murderer has since been rehired and is now a threat to kill again. I want to note that we must stop the ability of departments to fire officers when tensions are high, and then simply rehire them after the media has moved on. Those types of hirings are hard to track and may provide a loophole for departments in the future.

5. In instances of officer-involved shootings resulting in the death or injury of a civilian, do you support an independent agency unaffiliated with local law enforcement to investigate these instances, with the authority to bring charges against an officer if use of excessive force is determined?

Cindy Banyai: Yes

David Holden: Yes

HOLDEN: I would strongly support independent boards such as New York City’s Civilian Complaint review Board (CCRB). The CCRB has the authority, and just as important, the budget, to investigate and determine misconduct. If you know me, you know how strongly I support unions, but in many instances police unions are part of the problem as far as discipling police misconduct and shielding officers from accountability. Police unions need to be radically reformed, with their purview being legitimate collective bargaining for wages, benefits, and working conditions.

6. Do you support an end to qualified immunity for law enforcement officers?

Cindy Banyai: Yes

David Holden: Yes

HOLDEN: Yes, absolutely. This is going to have to be solved in Congress as a law since the recent push in the Supreme Court, led surprisingly by Clarence Thomas, failed. We absolutely can end qualified immunity through congressional law and allow families to collect in civil courts, and I promise to make this a priority should I have the opportunity to serve this District.

7. Do you support efforts to remove armed law enforcement officers from schools, as well as armed teachers and staff, and instead hire more counselors and mental health professionals to serve students?

Cindy Banyai: Yes

David Holden: Yes

BANYAI: I could not think of a worse solution to gun violence than arming teachers.

HOLDEN: This is vitally important. The school- to-prison pipeline, aided by Florida’s draconian direct file laws, is facilitated by school resource officers. We also know that educators are not free from racism or implicit bias, and arming teachers makes the classroom a potential crime scene. Additionally, we know that many communities of color, particularly diasporas, suffer from generational traumas, poor nutrition (in cases like Flint, lead in the water which leads to behavioral problems), and higher instances of PTSD. Schools are increasingly criminalizing depression, anxiety, and other personal issues within student populations of color. Not only do we need to hire more counselors and mental health professionals, but we also need to implement more substantive and targeted public health policies that seek to contextualize and aid students whose neighborhoods are in food deserts, are affected by pollution, etc.

8. The cash bail system keeps more than 70% of people charged, but not convicted, for a crime in local jails for several weeks or months due to an inability to afford bail. This disproportionately affects people of color and poorer folks. Do you support efforts to eliminate or reform the cash bail system?

Cindy Banyai: Yes

David Holden: Yes

BANYAI: This as well as the end to predatory fees in the criminal justice system.

HOLDEN: We need to move to end cash bail. It’s a debtors prison. In Florida, we can make small steps while we take large ones by ending how we suspend drivers licenses and reforming how we structure funding. Ending fines and fees in the criminal justice system in many states, particularly Florida, will cause it to crash to a halt. We must reform funding and make sure it's paid for by taxes instead of incentivizing endless fines (including our inflated bail) that push people into the carceral system.

9. Do you support increasing funding to assist individuals and families experiencing homelessness, as well as mental health services and court diversion programs that prioritize mental health and treatment for addiction over incarceration?

Cindy Banyai: Yes

David Holden: Yes

BANYAI: As someone who ran a homeless service organization in Cape Coral for many years, I have advocated for increased investments in affordable housing (including Housing First) and mental health services and will continue to do so as your Representative.

HOLDEN: Poverty, having symptoms of mental illness, and suffering from the disease of addiction are not crimes! But we too often treat them that way. In the grip of alcoholism and drug addiction I experienced homelessness, it was terrifying. I was fortunate, when I was ready to change help was available. That is not the case for too many Americans who are not white, and are not male. We have the resources as a nation to end homelessness, poverty, and radically reform a broken healthcare system. We just have to find the will to stop giving trillions of tax dollars to billionaires and rapacious corporations.

10. Do you support efforts to address the rising cost of housing by working with federal, state and local agencies to build more affordable housing for renters and homeowners?

Cindy Banyai: Yes

David Holden: Yes

HOLDEN: From WWII until the Reagan Administration, the US invested major financial resources into housing for Americans. The federal Government needs to massively increase affordable housing and also pass laws incentivizing communities to integrate their housing across economic and cultural barriers.

11. Do you support a $15 minimum wage and labor policies including fair scheduling and paycheck fairness protections?

Cindy Banyai: Yes

David Holden: Yes

HOLDEN: $15 at the very least. The United Way’s ALICE report indicates that many cities and counties really require more than $15 to meet a basic standard of living. So $15 is where we start. Democrats have been no friend to unions over the last thirty years, even though we depend on union support to win elections. It’s past time to give unions the tools and protections to allow effective workplace organizing to occur without management holding all the cards.

12. Do you support efforts to provide relief for student loan debt and to make some public colleges and universities tuition-free?

Cindy Banyai: Yes

David Holden: Yes

HOLDEN: Yes. Additionally, we must make predatory loans illegal and, as some loans will probably be necessary for cost of living, those interest rates must be brought down to at least the same rate that banks use to lend to themselves. Students striving to build a future for themselves should not be a profit-center for banks or the Government.

13. Do you support efforts to provide universal Pre-K education for all young children?

Cindy Banyai: Yes

David Holden: Yes

HOLDEN: This is critical to ensuring that our racial justice is intersectional. Women of color and Black women are, like many women, the caretakers of the next generation. To better ensure equity in the workforce, reduce the criminalization of single motherhood (i.e. women who go to jail because they leave their kids in cars for job interviews, etc.), and help educational trajectories for young children of color, we must ensure everyone has equal access to pre-k education and childcare.

14. Do you support the decriminalization of marijuana for recreational use?

Cindy Banyai: Yes

David Holden: Yes

BANYAI: I support full federalization legalization and expungement.

HOLDEN: I think there’s an important distinction between decriminalization and legalization. We’ve seen that in states that push for legalization, first and foremost, large industry swoops in and gives, almost always, white male businesses carte blanche to make money while mostly Black and brown people are still incarcerated. Decriminalization, I believe, is a necessary step so that there is a singular focus on decarceration. Then I believe we need to reschedule marijuana completely. Of course, legalization would then be an inevitability, with recreational use allowed under those provisions, but we must remain cognizant of the fact that overwhelmingly white businesses are profiting off of an industry that is simultaneously systemically oppressing Black and brown communities. We can incentivize ownership of licenses for selling marijuana to communities of color and require ownership be racially diverse for these licenses.

15. Do you support the removal of objects glorifying the Confederacy from public spaces?

Cindy Banyai: Yes

David Holden: Yes

BANYAI: I put out a public statement in support of removing the Lee statue from downtown Fort Myers and support local youth activists in coordinating a protest and pursuing civic action in continuation of their cause.

HOLDEN: Yes, but that also means we have to rewrite many textbooks and couple our destruction of the Lost Cause narrative with a robust educational component. The United Daughters of the Confederacy not only erected cheap statues, they also printed text books. We must revive the NAACP’s 1946 textbook campaign that fought to correct historical inaccuracies and pushed to include Black history. Of course, we must extend that to include indigenous histories, colonial histories, etc., so we correct some of our eurocentric curricula that erases the contributions of immigrants, Black people, and others.

16. Briefly list any proposals or policies you will pursue to promote racial justice in the community and ensure the voices of people of color are represented through the elected office you seek.

BANYAI: As noted earlier I will bring an equity lens to each piece of legislation and ensure there is a data-informed approach to reduce systemic racism in government policy. I will support community participatory budgeting to ensure public funds are going towards to most needed public services. I will work for a ban on choke holds and ending funding for the militarization of police forces. I support the passing of the Equality Act. I will also advocate for the full federal legalization of cannabis and record expungement. I plan on spending as much time in district as possible, including holding regular public town halls. I have been building a coalition of local leaders and residents to coordinate and inform my policy and will continue to do so once in office. I believe in true participatory democracy and no one will be tokenized as a part of my service.

HOLDEN:

1. Justice in Policing Act

2. End the Hyde Amendment (abortion healthcare is necessary to reduce maternal and infant health mortality rates in Black women and other women of color)

3. Pass the Equality Act and end trans and gay panic defenses which disproportionally impact Black trans women

4. Follow up on the First Step Act with a Second Step Act that goes further

5. Decriminalize marijuana

6. Pass a new, more robust Voting Rights Act

7. Ensure that charter schools follow IDEA and ADA standards as about 50% of Black people killed by police have a disability, and the school to prison pipeline facilitates that from a young age.

8. Institute Directors in FEMA, the EPA, Dept of Education, etc, that work to address racial disparities so we don’t have delayed responses to natural disasters in communities of color like after Katrina and in PR.

9. A pathway to citizenship for TPS recipients and undocumented folks who are law abiding and contribute to through taxation

10. Fight for sovereignty for the roughly 570 tribes in the United States

11. Immediately save the ACA (pre-existing conditions, no lifetime limits, birth control) and move towards single payer

12. Pass the Evergreen Action Plan, which includes bills for green jobs, and moves towards 100% clean energy. 13.Pass a national childcare funding program.

17. Communities of color represent an overwhelming majority of individuals whose jobs are considered essential during the COVID-19 pandemic. Briefly describe your plans to protect essential workers and their families from the health and economic effects of the pandemic.

BANYAI: The pandemic was mishandled from the beginning. I will advocate for stronger coordinated strategy and government preparedness to handle such events in the future. I will ensure that people are prioritized in any future fiscal stimulus programs, not big corporations. Part of what I am advocating for is a universal jobs program that will give anyone looking for work a job and set a minimum of standards, including benefits, a living wage, and health and safety precautions. I will fight against companies being let out of their responsibilities to workers and support funding for PPE and health and safety upgrades to protect workers. This pandemic has laid bare the systemic racism in this country in everything from housing security, health discrepancies, and the precariousness of essential jobs, especially low wage ones. I will not look away. I will continue to lean into the data and the stories of communities of color from the pandemic and economic crisis to keep pushing for necessary change.

HOLDEN: We must follow the path of countries such as Canada, Britain, and Germany, who have provided ongoing income support for all. A one-time $1200 stimulus is simply inadequate to meet the need. Folks need to be able to comfortably pay their bills through this crisis, things are stressful enough without the omnipresent fear of economic insecurity so many people face. We must also protect homeowners and renters from eviction. A moratorium doesn’t get the job done, we need mortgage and rent forgiveness. This goes back to a living wage, if you are essential you deserve to be paid that way. Hazard pay for essential jobs should be mandatory for the duration of this crisis. We also need to fund childcare services so families have options on who works when. Immigrants have also proven essential (as we always knew they were), and need better assistance than having Doctors without Borders in Immokalee.

For more information about the candidates:

Cindy Banyai for Congress

Holden for Florida