Angélica María Dueñas

Angélica María Dueñas earned a bachelor's degree in political science and public administration from California State University at Los Angeles in 2007 and a master's degree in organizational leadership from Woodbury University in 2013. Dueñas' career experience includes working as the Southern California campaign coordinator for Jill Stein's 2016 presidential campaign, as a human resources manager with Gravity Defyer, and as a human resources specialist. She served as president and vice president of the Sun Valley Area Neighborhood Council and as a member of the Bernie Sanders Delegation to the 2016 and the 2020 Democratic National Conventions.[1][2][3][4][5]

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Campaign website

Dueñas’s campaign website stated the following:

Our Issues, Our Priorities

A People First approach to governance.

We advocate for a peaceful foreign policy, guaranteed healthcare, a federal jobs guarantee, affordable housing, education as a right, clean energy, immigration reform, criminal justice reform, and veteran care.

Heathcare For All

Advocating for Medicare for All, promoting a single-payer solution for reform to our current healthcare system.

Affordable Housing

Ensuring housing as a fundamental right, we combat gentrification, advocate for affordable homes, and strive to end homelessness through comprehensive programs and healthcare reform.

A Green New Deal

Determined to achieve 100% clean energy by 2030. Advocating for a Green New Deal, prioritizing jobs, justice, and a sustainable future for all.

Immigration Reform

Advocating for inclusive immigration policies, we champion legal status for all, DREAM Act citizenship, healthcare access, and justice for asylum seekers. Join the fight for humane reforms.

Criminal Justice Reform

Championing criminal justice reform: demilitarize police, boost accountability, end school-to-prison pipeline, ban private prisons, eliminate mandatory minimums, and reform use-of-force laws.

Progressive Foreign Policy

Advocating a foreign policy of peace, prosperity, and collaboration through diplomacy, human rights, fair trade, and responsible military spending.

Caring for Veterans

We advocate for increased funding and resources for the Department of Veteran Affairs, prioritizing mental health, housing, employment, and education for our veterans.

Quality Public Education

We advocate for tuition-free public college, cancellation of student debt, improved public education, protection from privatization, and universal pre-K and Head Start programs.

Protect Social Security

WE will protect the right of seniors to retire with Social Security. WE oppose cutting benefits or raising the retirement age. WE will work to lift the cap on taxable income that goes towards social security for our elders. Social Security and Marriage Equality Act: All lawfully married same-sex couples should get Social Security spousal benefits, no matter where they live.

Election Integrity

We will fight for transparent, fair and clean elections. Elections and other political processes are pivotal to the quality of our government. We will fight to get Corporate money out of politics and end Citizens United.[6]

—Angélica María Dueñas’s campaign website (2024)[7]

Angélica María Dueñas did not complete [the profile publisher]'s 2022 Candidate Connection survey.

Campaign website

Dueñas' campaign website stated the following:

Healthcare

MEDICARE FOR ALL

As millions of people are thrown off their health insurance due to massive employment losses nationwide, the COVID-19 pandemic has made the case for Medicare-for-All better than any politician ever could. We must use this unprecedented moment to rally together to, once and for all, institute a single payer system; a move that enjoys major support across the political base of the country. We are the only major country in the world to not provide healthcare as a right, yet spend around $9,400 per capita- the most expensive in the world! That’s an average of 2.5 times more than other major industrialized nations who provide universal healthcare for ALL of its citizens. On top of high administrative costs, costly deductibles, and payments for procedures, most uninsured people are low-income and disproportionately people of color.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) made history by expanding health insurance to 30 million Americans by requiring people to buy private health insurance policies and expanding Medicaid. However, it left private insurance companies in charge of our healthcare system. Their ability to consolidate power in order to command market prices continues to drive up costs. So, while people may have more "access" to healthcare, the legal requirement to buy into private health insurance left many with high premiums, and a heavy burden of debt.

Basic human rights, like our healthcare, should not be privatized into a 100 billion dollar industry, PERIOD.

But we can’t stop at healthcare coverage alone. We must reform our health system to focus on public health prevention as opposed to treatment. Investing to prevent chronic diseases like cancer, diabetes, asthma, hepatitis, and other illnesses can save billions in healthcare spending per year. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a whopping 90% of our healthcare dollars go towards preventable chronic conditions like heart disease and lung cancer; yet less than 3 cents of every $1 spent goes towards preventing those conditions. But insurance companies rarely cover preventive services, and pharmaceutical manufacturers rarely invest in preventive drugs.

Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies have exploited our healthcare system’s focus on treatment as opposed to prevention by price gouging some of the most critical life-saving drugs on the market. For example, the cost of insulin is ten times higher in the United States than other developed countries, and its costs doubled from 2012 to 2016. Not only are pharmaceutical companies not required to disclose how they calculate their prices, there is barely any meaningful federal regulation of prices. Drug spending per capita has increased 40% since 2007, while our health outcomes and life expectancy have gone down; begging the question – why have drug prices soared if we aren’t seeing the benefits in our health?

Today, our healthcare system comprises roughly 20% of our annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and its profits are driven almost exclusively on costly treatments. In 2017, public health spending comprised just 2.5% of our roughly $3.6 trillion healthcare system. As stated above, we spend over $9,400 per capita on healthcare, but less than $32 per capita on public health.

The result is more sickness, more death, and lower health outcomes. Systemic racism throughout our healthcare system leaves Black, Indigenous, and Latinx communities with disproportionately higher rates of disease and death. For example, infant mortality rates among Black Americans are 2.3 times higher than for Whites, while Latinx Americans are nearly 3 times more likely to be uninsured than White Americans. We can reverse this trend by investing into community-based public health prevention programs and services. We can rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and ensure every American has access to healthy foods. Every $1 invested pin public health prevention saves $5.60 in healthcare treatment spending – a 560% return on investment. We can save the health of our communities by investing in their growth and prosperity.

THE PROFIT MOTIVE

Once we are able to eliminate private insurers and ruthless pharmaceutical companies from the equation, their ability to drive up prices for premiums, deductibles, and admin costs will, in effect, also be eliminated. That's more money in your pocket. The only ones who lose are private insurance executives and shareholders. On top of that, the for-profit private health insurance companies have proven ineffective when it comes to negotiating with for prescription drugs and other forms of medicine. A Medicare for All "Single Payer" System will provide universal health insurance which will eliminate out-of-pocket expenses, the aforementioned costs of the private health insurance bureaucracy, and be able to negotiate for affordable prescription drugs.

WHAT IS SINGLE PAYER HEALTHCARE?

The United States is the only country in the developed world that does not guarantee access to basic health care for residents. Countries that guarantee health care as a human right do so through a “single-payer” system, which replaces the thousands of for-profit health insurance companies with a public, universal plan.

If you think this is politically unfeasible to win in the United States, take a look at the across-the-board support for the program. Afraid it can't work? It already exists for seniors! Medicare is a public, universal plan that provides basic health coverage to those age 65 and older. Medicare costs less than private health insurance, provides better financial security, and is preferred by most patients. Single-payer is often described as “Expanded & Improved Medicare for All.”

A single-payer system would save at least $2 trillion in net savings over the course of ten years, which is now wasted on administrative overhead and monopoly profits.

And, finally, the $2 trillion-dollar question: How do we pay for it? For starters, we can increase personal income taxes on the top 5% of income earners, an additional 2% tax on those who make more than $250,000 (less than 3% of the population) in taxable income, and a 6% premium on large, billion-dollar corporations. The rest of the necessary funding will be through the authorization of funds via the Federal Reserve. Aside from the savings we would accrue over time as a whole (as previously stated), small-to-medium sized employers, as well as labor unions, will be relieved from the burden of negotiating healthcare services for employees, as they will already be covered.

As a first step in congress, we will support and co-sponsor H.R. 1384 - "Medicare For All Act" which will provide comprehensive healthcare coverage including at least the following:

Primary care and prevention

Approved dietary and nutritional therapies

Inpatient care

Outpatient care

Emergency care

Prescription drugs

Durable medical equipment

Long-term care

Palliative care

Mental health services

The full scope of dental services, services, including periodontics, oral surgery, and dental (not including cosmetic dentistry)

Substance abuse treatment services

Chiropractic services, not including electrical stimulation

Basic vision care and vision correction (other than laser vision correction for cosmetic purposes)

Hearing services, including coverage of hearing aids

Podiatry care

CONTROL PRESCRIPTION DRUG PRICING

We need to end the monopolization of profits by big pharmaceutical companies by regulating the prices they charge for prescription drugs. On top of creating an government apparatus that can negotiate for better prices, we need to pass a bill that will allow us to purchase prescription drugs from other countries that are providing the same drugs by the same reputable companies from countries like Canada. In 2017, 13 Democratic Senators voted NO on an amendment that would lower prescription drugs by importing them from Canada.

We need to pass legislation like the Prescription Drug Affordability Act of 2015 that would allow the importation by individuals of prescription drugs from Canada and other countries. We need to establish restrictions on certain anti-competitive patent settlements known as "pay-for-delay" agreements which effectively block generic drug competition, and we must allow the Federal Trade Commission to initiate proceedings to enforce these restrictions. Lastly, we will fight to require drug manufacturers to provide rebates for drugs dispensed to low-income individuals.

Veterans Affairs

CARE FOR VETERANS AND CURRENT SERVICE MEMBERS

It is important that we take care of those who have served our country. It is essential that we not only give them and their families the help they need but also show them that the government is there for them 100% no matter what. The horrifying and shocking realities surrounding the veteran population needs to be addressed: 20 veterans a day commit suicide, 50,000 live on the streets, 495,000 veterans are unemployed, and PTSD afflicts almost 31 percent of Vietnam veterans, 10 percent of Gulf War (Desert Storm) veterans, 11 percent of veterans of the war in Afghanistan, and 20 percent of Iraqi war veterans. In addition, the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) needs increased funding and resources to ensure sufficient staff and enough medical equipment, resources and adequate facilities to help solve the aforementioned issues.

We will fight to ensure more adequate funding for the VA to:

Hire more staff to sufficiently care for our veterans and their families at pre, during, and post deployment

Utilize and train on using technology to remove inefficiencies such as administrative work/filings

Build more medical facilities including hospitals and mental health clinics to ensure veterans receive the proper medical and mental health care they need. We must also ensure that veterans can get treated at any hospital or facility outside of the VA to address the concerns of long wait times to get treated

Hire more doctors for the VA to also ensure veterans are getting the timely treatment needed.

Develop more housing for veterans so that when they come back home, they have a place to live

Guarantee jobs for our veterans so that we can apply our veterans' strengths in helping them achieve the career path they wish to pursue when transitioning back to civilian life

Providing education as a right whether it be private or public, veterans should get the education they want and need to compete in this global competitive economy

Help our homeless veterans off the streets by providing rapid re-housing and homelessness prevention programs and clinical services

Criminal Justice Reform

CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM

From mass incarceration to police shootings and killings, and all the way to our court system of convicting officers' wrong doing, there is must needed room for criminal justice reform. Public trust on our police departments have deteriorated over the years, especially with the use of cell phone videos and body cameras. We know that police have always used excessive and deadly force disproportionately against Black and Brown citizens and our unhoused community members. We know that while Black and Latinx Americans comprise just 28% of our population, they are 56% of our incarcerated. Here in the state of California, we also subject our incarcerated to prison labor by having them on the frontlines of climate change fighting deadly wildfires at only $1 in pay per day. This public distrust is valid because many people, including the Native American, African American, Latinx, LGTBQIA+ and the Disabled community, have been unjustly targeted and sometimes end up dead for minor issues like traffic stops, disproportionately to Whites. We are outraged that when officers do get charged with murder or manslaughter, most often than not, they never get convicted.

From the National spotlights of Breonna Taylor, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, George Floyd, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray, Walter Scott, Sandra Bland, Samuel DuBose, Philando Castile, to the local spotlights of Ezell Ford, Wakiesha Wilson, Jose Mendez and Jesse Romero, it is clear that there must be criminal justice reform.

DEMILITARIZE POLICE AND INCREASE ACCOUNTABILITY

Over the past two decades as the United States wages a War on Drugs that has destroyed Black and Brown communities nationwide, our local police forces have grown more militarized and more deadly. We must repeal the federal “1033” program that allows for the transfer of military grade weapons from the Department of Defense to local police forces free of charge. In fact, the more local police use the military equipment, the more they receive – creating a perverse incentive to terrorize and oppress our communities. From 2006 to 2014, the 1033 Program facilitated the transfer of over 79,000 assault rifles, 600 mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles (MRAPs), 205 grenade launchers, roughly 12,000 bayonets, nearly 4,000 combat knives, 50 airplanes, 422 helicopters, 479 bomb detonator robots, and $3.6 million in camouflage gear to local police forces. The initiative has transformed our police into powerful militias.

WE MUST hold police institutions and the labor unions that protect them from prosecution accountable. We need to establish Civilian & Police Review boards in local communities to have a balanced check on police and make sure they are held accountable for any related police incidents resulting in death or bodily harm to individuals, whether by accident or on purpose.

We must increase police training length, especially in terms of conflict resolution tactics. In some European countries, police training can go up to 3 years so that police can have ample time to learn to better understand, communicate with and calm distraught individuals. US police academies provided an average of 19 weeks of classroom instruction. We must also focus on increased training on de-escalation techniques instead of using deadly force.

We must demilitarize our police forces so that they don’t look and act like they are going to war with our own citizens. We must have mandatory community policing requirements of proportional representation where police officers look and act like the people in the communities they are supposed to protect and serve.

We must ensure that mental health patients who call law enforcement for help will be treated as medical patients, not criminals. In addition, we need to invest in medical and mental help programs to deal with those having substance abuse issues. We should be treating them from a health perspective, not a criminal perspective.

END THE SCHOOL TO PRISON PIPELINE AND INVEST IN RESTORATIVE JUSTICE

We must put an end to the school to prison pipeline. We can invest more in youth jobs and education, not jails and incarceration. This involves ending the War on Drugs that targets people of color disproportionately compared to our White counterparts. In addition, we need to take marijuana off the federal government's list of outlawed drugs / the DEA's Schedule 1 drug list where Heroin is on that same list. We must legalize and tax cannabis, while expunging all federal criminal records for non-violent drug offenses. And we must restore full access to civil liberties and social services to help break the cycle of recidivism.

We must rebuild and invest in the economic growth and prosperity of our formerly incarcerated community members, and establish community-led healing efforts grounded in restorative justice. We can invest billions into mental and behavioral health services so that our community members receive treatment as opposed to prison for a chronic health condition.

BAN PRIVATE PRISONS AND DETENTION CENTERS

It is time to end the for-profit prisons industry with a direct ban. The prison industrial complex has led to a disproportionate amount of mass incarceration people of color and low-income people. In the United States, we have the world's highest level of prisoners (over 2 million prisoners) compared to any other country. The private prison industry’s business model revolves around maximizing arrest and prosecution to churn endless profits – not aid in the delivery of justice. Private prisons face little regulation and oversight, and nearly all have inhumane conditions including decrepit water and sanitation facilities, lack of healthcare services, frequent abuse by guards, and conditions that force incarcerated individuals to live in squalor. We must abolish this system of tyranny.

END MANDATORY MINIMUMS

We must eliminate mandatory minimums and three strikes laws, which we have seen disproportionately leads to tougher sentencing for Black and Brown people than Whites. According to the Yale Law Journal, Black men were nearly twice as likely to be charged with an offense that carried a mandatory minimum sentence than White men facing similar circumstances. Judges have historically selected longer and tougher sentences for Blacks, even if they have the same criminal history as Whites.

USE OF FORCE

We must evaluate and reform our current laws regarding the "use of lethal force" to ensure that police officers who are in the wrong of unjustly killing people are indicted AND convicted. There is an overwhelming number of police shootings each year that ends up as "justifiable" in the eyes of the law however, when we see cases like that of Walter Scott, who was shot 3 times in the back while running away, or Eric Garner who was choked to death even though his hands were up and there was large presence of police officers around, it begs to question: what must you do to get an indictment or a conviction for police officers? There is too much leeway for law enforcement officers who get away using lethal force. There must be transformative reform.

Civil Rights

PROTECTING OUR CIVIL RIGHTS

At a time when our civil rights are under attack by a conservative government and Donald Trump, we must ALL stand united ready to resist and to fight back against any form of oppression, bigotry, xenophobia, sexism, or racism. We must realize that our strengths and what makes America great is our diversity, our culture, and our differences. To be able to be the most diverse country on Earth is why we are the wealthiest and most industrialized nation on earth. We must treat each other with respect, compassion, and with dignity regardless of the color of one's skin, their gender identity, who they love, or what faith someone practices. We cannot go back towards the days of segregation and a life based on fear, we must only move forward.

RACIAL JUSTICE

Black Lives Matter: We must recognize that there is a problem in the United States of America that has stemmed from the roots of slavery which has played an effect on the social conditioning of society today. Our system in the U.S. has failed the African American community. African Americans are disproportionately incarcerated, unemployed, homeless, lack quality education, live near unsafe environmental conditions, face tougher prison sentences, and more likely to be killed by police compared to other racial groups other than Native Americans. We will work to overthrow the current system that has failed African Americans and people of color so that they have the same chances to succeed as everyone else should.

Latinx Justice: African Americans and Latinx make up half of the total prisoners in America even though they represent only a quarter of the entire population. Like the African American community, the system has also failed the Latinx community as well as they too face a disproportion of incarceration, unemployment, lack of quality education, imminent threats of deportation, and live near unsafe environmental conditions.

As discussed we must combat a system of wealth and income inequality that has had a profound effect on the African American and Latinx community. We must provide quality public education and healthcare as a right, a living wage, affordable housing, and more opportunities for work.

We must reform our criminal justice system that disproportionately targets African Americans and Latinx, leaving them incarcerated or killed at the hands of police. In addition, we will work to ensure that African Americans do not receive tougher sentencing than white people with the same history. We will stop racial discrimination in education against students, including punishments for behavior or preferential treatment based on race. We will also ensure quality public education as a right for all races. We push for the Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would strengthen voting rights by expanding and strengthening the government's ability to respond to voting discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, sexual preference, or membership in a language minority group. We will work to pass the Safe Schools Improvement Act, which would amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) to require school districts in state that receive ESEA funds to adopt codes of conduct specifically prohibiting bullying and harassment, including on the bases of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender identify, and religion

WOMEN'S RIGHTS

Equal pay: We will work with Congress to come up with a way to ensure that there is equal pay regardless of gender or race. If people are working the same position with the same amount of skill and job experience, they should be paid the same. Women of Color only make anywhere from 55 to 63 cents for every dollar a white man makes. We will support legislation like the Paycheck Fairness Act to stop gender wage discrimination. Also, we will work to raise the federal minimum wage to $15.

Right to choose: We will work to protect reproductive rights and a right for anyone to choose what they decide to do with their body. We will provide safe and legal to access to social services, medicine, and abortion, such as protecting Planned Parenthood. We will provide quality child care as a right, including more Head Start programs and universal Pre-K for new and working mothers. Parents deserve all the necessary help in the beginning phases of their children’s lives. While they are working to make a living for their family, they must also have help in raising their child to be the best they can be.

We will work to pass legislation that provides 12 weeks of guaranteed paid family and medical leave.

LGBTQIA+ RIGHTS

LGBTQIA+ Rights are Human Rights. We will work to ensure that the future of this nation considers the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community and any other marginalized community as such.

We will work to cosponsor and pass the Equality Act, which would add protections for sexual orientation and gender identity to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Equality Act would prohibit worker, education, segregation, and public service discrimination on the basis of sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation. We will work to pass the Respect for Marriage Act (RMA), which would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and guarantee that the federal government will respect legal marriages of same-sex couples and provide them with federal spousal rights and protection. We will work to pass the Social Security and Marriage Equality (SAME) Act which would amend the federal code to ensure all lawfully married same-sex couples will receive Social Security spousal benefits, regardless of where they live. We will work to pass the Stop Harming Our Kids Act that would encourage states to prohibit licensed counselors and therapists from engaging in dangerous practices to try to change the sexual orientation or gender expression of LGBTQIA+ minors, often known as “conversion therapy." We will pass a single payer Medicare for ALL system that would cover HIV/AIDS screenings & treatment and necessary sex reassignment surgeries and treatments.

NATIVE RIGHTS

We stand in solidarity with our indigenous sisters and brothers facing threats of pipelines being built on their land. We will work to ensure that all treaties are honored and respected by the United States government and the companies that try to build on and extract resources from sacred lands. In addition, we must empower tribal sovereignty in order for tribes to protect and restore their sacred lands. We must also ensure that with tribal sovereignty that tribes can carry out their own prosecution and have jurisdiction over crimes or actions taking place on tribal lands.

We will work to ensure that Native Americans have equal access to safety, education, healthcare, and affordable housing, as currently wealth and income inequality hits hardest for Native Americans. 1 out of 4 Native Americans live in poverty with a high school graduation rate of 67%, a lack of adequate healthcare and housing, poor infrastructure, and the highest risk of killing by police compared to all other racial groups. As part of our platform we are fighting for criminal justice reform, universal healthcare, public education as a right, a Green New Deal, and housing as a right.

RELIGIOUS LIBERTIES

We will work to ensure that there is a separation between church and state and that public law should be independent of anyone’s religion.

We will protect the freedom to express your religious faith or non-religious faith as upheld by the Free Exercise Clause in the First Amendment, and oppose any legislation that indiscriminately targets people from a certain religion to enter the country such as Donald Trump's travel ban that affects predominantly Muslim countries.

Foreign Policy

FOREIGN POLICY BASED ON PROSPERITY AND PEACE

In the international arena, we must work multilaterally to advance U.S. interests, not force them upon other nations through regime change.

In Congress, we will always seek peaceful approaches, while advocating for the use of diplomacy, and not wage preemptive wars without being attacked or facing an immediate, unavoidable attack. It is time to put the breaks on the war machine.

In the same manner, we will work with countries that do not violate human rights, including women's rights and labor rights. We prioritize foreign aid to governments whose actions are consistent with our values and principles. We propose the establishment on thorough military spending audits to find any