MONTCLAIR, NJ – Today, public servant and nonprofit leader Cammie Croft laid out an aggressive agenda to fight the corruption in the White House and Congress that has benefited wealthy corporate interests while jacking up costs for working families. Cammie has spent her career working for the public good by leading non-profits in clean energy and immigration, working in President Obama’s White House that upheld the highest ethical standards, and fighting back against President Trump and his corruption.
Cammie Croft’s first policy planks focus on rooting out corruption and self-dealing in government, from the Trump White House to both parties in Congress, striking at special interest control of Washington so it can truly serve the American people.
- End stock trading in Congress and the White House. Members of Congress and senior White House staff, including the President and Vice President, are constantly exposed to insider information that will affect company stocks. Pretending they can simply wall that off from their own stock-trading is an insult to Americans’ intelligence. It needs to end once and for all.
- End the revolving door between public service and private gain. The revolving door between politics and profit has corroded trust in government. It’s why so many people believe the system is rigged – because too often, it is. Public service should never be a stepping stone to private profit, and there should be a 2– year “cooling off period” for members of Congress before lobbying or advising on federal policy. We also have to end shadow lobbying with mandatory transparency for all “consultants” and “advisors” who are really lobbyists profiting from influence-peddling. Too many political insiders cash in on their connections blurring the line between serving the public and serving themselves. Every member of Congress should sign the same ethics pledge that Cammie signed under President Obama that barred her from lobbying or profiting off her government service.
- Stop crypto trading in Congress and the White House. President Trump’s family has reportedly enriched themselves by billions of dollars through unethical presidential crypto schemes in just nine months, and Trump has now pardoned his criminal business partner who was convicted of allowing Al Qaeda to launder money. Plenty of Americans hold crypto with no issue, but for public officials this enables a dark web for untraceable bribes — as we are already seeing with Trump. Foregoing crypto investments should be a small price to pay for the honor of representing your neighbors in Congress, and political corruption tarnishes the reputation of the crypto industry.
- Cammie will refuse to accept any corporate PAC money — and urges the entire Democratic Party to do the same. While the right-wing Supreme Court has invented new rights for multinational corporations to bribe public officials, public officials still have a choice whether to accept those bribes. Not only does Cammie refuse to accept those donations, she encourages the Democratic Party to return to its roots by refusing corporate PAC money across the board. The American people look at politicians taking millions from big corporations that have business before the government, and they see a system being rigged against them. Democrats should make clear whose side we are on.
“While Trump enriches himself with billions in crypto bribes and tears down the White House for a gold-plated ballroom, American families are drowning in skyrocketing utility bills and health care costs because massive special interests have bought off our government — it needs to end now,” Cammie said. “Democrats need to stand up and demand an end to Trump and Republicans’ corruption, but they need to clean up their own house, too. I want to be a new kind of Democrat, one that my mom, a lifelong Democratic voter who stayed strong while raising four babies at 20 years old, could be proud to vote for again.”
In Congress, Cammie is committed to lowering costs, ending corruption, and investing in a stronger future for New Jersey families. She plans to fight to lower the prices of groceries, energy, and everyday essentials, while pushing for reforms that hold Washington accountable to working people. She also believes a massive expansion of clean, affordable energy is key to cutting utility bills and creating good jobs, instead of trying to ban it as Donald Trump and Republican extremists are trying to do.
Raised in a small railroad town in central Pennsylvania, Cammie was the first in her family to graduate from college. Inspired by her working mother’s example of grit and generosity, Cammie dedicated her career to public service. In the Obama White House, she helped pass the Affordable Care Act, ending discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions. At Amnesty International, she fought to expand human rights at home and abroad, and during the Trump presidency, she advocated for humane, bipartisan immigration reform. Most recently, she helped build a nonprofit from the ground up that helped families save money on their energy bills by making clean power affordable, until the Trump Administration unlawfully froze its funding.
“Running for Congress was never part of my plan,” Cammie said in a video announcing her campaign. “But I realized that one day my kids will ask me what I did, and when they ask, I need to be able to tell them that I did everything I possibly could.”
Cammie’s work will build on the strong foundation laid by Congresswoman and now Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill. She will continue the fight to protect health care, stand up to corruption, and deliver critical investments in infrastructure and education. For more information, visit CammieforCongress.com