Spending money on foreign wars drives up inflation, raises gas prices, and squeezes working families who are already stretched thin. Every person deserves an equal opportunity and equal rights to a decent quality of life, and that has to be reflected in how we spend public money. For 36 years, Richard Neal has voted to send billions of taxpayer dollars overseas while families in Western Massachusetts struggle to afford groceries, health care, and a place to live. He has taken more money from big corporations and special interests than almost any other member of the House, and it shows in how he votes. The working families of the 1st District deserve a representative whose loyalty is to them, not to defense contractors and corporate donors.

As a Lebanese American who has been immersed in Middle East policy her entire life, Nadia understands the human cost of endless war in a way most politicians never will. Her daughter Samya’s last post before she died was “silence is complicity.” Her sons participated in flotillas bringing aid to Gaza and were imprisoned and physically abused by Israel. U.S. tax dollars are funding the destruction of Palestinian lives, and that is not only a moral failure but a strategic one. Destroying communities, killing families, and stripping people of everything breeds instability and blowback for generations. A foreign policy built on violence does not make us safer. Those dollars should be invested in the well-being of people here at home.

Western Massachusetts is also facing a health care crisis of its own. Residents wait four months to a year just to see a doctor, even for urgent needs. Richard Neal helped create this shortage in 1997 by voting to permanently cap the number of physician residencies Medicare supports, and has done nothing to fix it since, despite chairing the committee with direct jurisdiction over health care. At the same time he has taken millions from the insurance and pharmaceutical industries and fought against expanding Medicare access for families who need it most.

Nadia will work to bring more doctors and mental health professionals to the district, support expanded residency programs, and make health care affordable and accessible for every family in the 1st District. She will stop price gouging, close corporate tax loopholes, and use that revenue to lower costs for working people. She will fight to bring Social Security benefits in line with today’s cost of living so seniors can afford to live with dignity. And she will vote against sending taxpayer money to fund foreign wars, because every dollar spent on destruction is a dollar not spent on housing, health care, and the future of our communities.