Sean Casten

Sean Casten was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1971 to American parents.[1][2] He earned a bachelor's degree from Middlebury College in 1989 and a graduate degree from Dartmouth College in 1993. Prior to serving in the U.S. Congress, Casten worked as a scientist at the Tufts School of Medicine, consultant with Arthur D. Little, and president/CEO of Turbosteam Corporation. In 2007, he co-founded Recycled Energy Development, LLC. He also served as the chairman of the Northeast Combined Heat and Power Association in 2005 and the U.S. Combined Heat and Power Association in 2007.[3][4][1]

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

We need to ensure an economy that works for everyone. At the end of Biden’s administration, GDP was growing, job creation was surging, unemployment was low, and prices were coming down. All of those trends have slowed or reversed under Donald Trump, largely thanks to unpredictable tariffs and a weakening of the rule of law. We know how to fix it; we just need a majority in Congress willing to stand up to the president and for the American people.We must protect our democracy from the harm caused by the Trump administration. Congress needs to not only assert its oversight powers to act as a check but also reclaim powers that were taken by the Executive branch. Oversight will come if Democrats take the majority, but we also need to pass structural good government reforms, including but not limited to my governmental reform proposals, and use our power of the purse to withhold funding for those who refuse to comply with ethics and the rule of law - from ICE to the Supreme Court.We must address climate change and remove the barriers to cheap, clean energy deployment. I have drafted legislation to that end with my colleague Mike Levin of California. This is a compilation of ideas from all across Congress. We introduced a similar version of this bill last term and secured over 80 cosponsors, and it has become the cornerstone of Democratic clean energy policy.

We have since amended the legislation to include a restoration of incentives previously available under the Inflation Reduction Act (and ended by the Republican Congress). This will be the roadmap for climate and energy policy for House Democrats moving forward.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I ran for Congress after spending 20 years running companies that were dedicated to profitably reducing greenhouse gas emissions. There is no conflict between our wallets and our morals; there is only a conflict between the interests of energy producers and the interests of energy consumers.

In Congress, I brought that perspective to the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, where I served for two terms and where we wrote the report that became the Inflation Reduction Act - the biggest climate bill ever passed by any government anywhere. It makes me sad to say “was” since this bill was substantially repealed by the Republican Congress this term. But the work to pass a livable planet on to our children continues.

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

Among others, the AFL-CIO of Illinois, the League of Conservation Voters the Chicago Federation of Labor, the Illinois Association of Letter Carriers, Associated Fire Fighters of Illinois, DuPage Building Trades, other local unions, Citizen Action Illinois, and the Sierra Club.

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I ran for this office in 2018 on the premise that there's an awful lot more that unites us than divides us. The overwhelming majority of us trust science. We believe that women should have full control of their body and that the government should not be involved in their health care decisions. We think markets are extremely powerful tools to harness ingenuity, but they require a functioning, ethical, and competent government to make sure everybody gets a fair chance. Most importantly, the overwhelming majority of us know that we are only as good as the world we leave to our children.

Over my three terms in Congress, I’ve been reassured by the voters and my colleagues that my idealism is justified. I served on the climate committee that recommended the legislation that became the Inflation Reduction Act - the biggest climate bill ever passed anywhere. We were intimately involved in the recovery from COVID that led to a US economy that recovered faster and is growing faster than any other country in the world - with growth across red states and blue states and income growth fastest among the most needy.

But, to be blunt, our work isn’t finished. Global temperatures continue to rise. A woman’s right to control her body depends on the state she is in. We still have too many guns, and too many gun deaths. It’s an amazing privilege and responsibility to have this job. And as long as we still have work to do, I’ll keep at it.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Climate change remains the existential threat to our species and addressing this crisis remains my top priority in Congress. I am proud to have served on the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis where we wrote substantially all of what became the Inflation Reduction Act. This term I have introduced the Clean Electricity and Transmission Acceleration Act to debottleneck our electric grid and ensure that all the new investments have a path to market. We have an opportunity to expand access to cleaner, cheaper energy and create jobs at the same time. I’m working to make sure that we seize that opportunity. I am 100% pro-choice without exception, and I’m running to ensure women have the right to make their own health care decisions no matter the state they are in.

Congress can and should codify this right by passing the Women’s Health Protection Act, which I was proud to co-sponsor and help pass in the House in the 117th Congress. That bill would reaffirm that abortion access is not an issue of federal rights nor states rights but of women’s rights. I also led over 100 of my colleagues in a letter calling on the Senate to eliminate or modify the filibuster so that we can pass this into law - because given the choice between the rights of 167 million American women and 40 US Senators I will always side with the former.Our country has too many guns and too many gun deaths. Both are the direct result of courts that have taken a wildly excessive and expansive interpretation of the 2nd Amendment. Since the Heller decision the Supreme Court has manufactured an entire view of the Second amendment that is at odds with our founders’ intent. We need to go back to the 2nd Amendment our founders intended.

I support, among other things, banning assault weapons and preventing anyone with a history of domestic violence from owning a firearm - since that demographic comprises two-thirds of all mass shooters in the United States. Until we reduce access to guns in our society we are going to continue to lose too many Americans from needless gun violence.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Addressing the climate crisis, protecting women's reproductive rights, lowering costs for families, and ending gun violence.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

The first time I remember getting paid for the work I did was when I learned that there was a scrap metal yard near my house that would pay for aluminum and tin by the pound. I was probably 12 - 13 years old, having lunch with my dad at a pizza restaurant in town and noticed that all the cans of soda were made of aluminum and tin and were being thrown away. (This was before the 5 cent per can recycling laws were passed.) My dad told me I should come back with a trash can and ask the owner if he'd consider separating them out for me. I remember being embarrassed to ask the question, but I did, and he said yes. And then I would come down once a week to pick up the cans he'd pulled for me and take them over to the scrap yard to earn a few extra dollars. I got to know the guy who ran the yard, and he gave me a tour of their facility, including the molten slabs of aluminum that they produced from my cans to resell - it was a neat, and very visual understanding of the circular economy. I doubt I earned more than $100 for my efforts that summer, but the idea that you can turn other people's waste into money and improve the environment has stuck with me ever since.

Do you believe that compromise is necessary or desirable for policymaking?

I represent a purple district that elected Republicans for almost 50 years straight before I was elected in 2018. Put simply, I would not be in this job unless my values and priorities mapped to the bipartisan interests of my constituents.

And indeed, outside of political jobs, it is never seen as particularly praiseworthy to work well with people who disagree with you on some things. All of us, in our personal and professional lives have undoubtedly made good friends and done good work with people who disagree with us on any number of politically charged issues in Washington.

Ultimately, my view is that if we must choose, we should put the bipartisan interests of our voters first. Where that finds common cause with bipartisanship in Washington, by all means do both. Which I have, whether working with Tim Burchett (R-TN) to introduce bills to provide financial assistance to teachers who pay for classroom supplies out of pocket, with Mike Bost (R-IL) on legislation to lower crop insurance payments for farmers who plant cover crops or with Senators Graham (R-SC), Warren (D-MA) and Marshall (R-KS) on anti-money laundering legislation.

But in the final analysis, what matters is that we make good policy. How we cobble together a majority in the House and Senate is the path to that goal - but we should never elevate paths over goals.

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

Sean Casten did not complete [the profile publisher]'s 2022 Candidate Connection survey.

Sean Casten did not complete [the profile publisher]'s 2020 Candidate Connection survey.

Campaign website

Casten’s campaign website stated the following:

Veterans Policy

Veterans, Servicemembers, and Military Families

My father was a U.S. Marine and served our country in Vietnam, my grandfather served in the European theater during WWII and fought at the Battle of the Bulge. They fought and protected our democracy alongside many of their fellow Americans from all walks of life. They also served in an era when it was taken for granted that every generation would serve their country. I grew up around their commitment to service and while I myself did not serve, I have hired and worked with many veterans, and have a first-hand appreciation for the skills and character that are common to our veterans.

At our best, our country should see veterans as a resource. They have already proven their mettle and commitment. Providing them with education, healthcare and employment when they return to civilian life is not just the morally right thing to do — it’s the smart thing to do. But we also need to realize that our veterans have real and unique stresses and challenges, from PTSD to reintegration into civilian society.

When military service was more widely spread throughout the electorate, we understood those challenges more directly. That’s no longer the case. As we’ve shifted to an all-volunteer force, that experience is increasingly localized to isolated military communities. And when less than one percent of the population is shouldering the burden to fight our country’s wars and armed conflicts, it is too easy for most of us to ignore their sacrifice. This has led to a situation where we are committed to maintaining the pre-eminent military in the world (a good thing) but have become far too willing to put our service members in harm’s way, and lost our commitment to provide those veterans with the support they need when they come home.

How I will support veterans, servicemembers, and military families:

Make the VA a leader in national health care reform by filling the estimated 30,000 vacancies with qualified doctors and medical staff, employing improved technology, and continuing to reduce wait times at VA health facilities.

Update the medical record-keeping system to include modernization of the VA’s and Department of Defense’s IT healthcare systems as well as integrate the DOD and VA networks in order to ease the transfer of care.

Block efforts to privatize the VA health care system. Markets are inherently efficient, but come with the risk of price and supply volatility. And while competitive markets include for-profit businesses, the existence of a for-profit business does not imply the existence of a market. Since we should never tolerate price or supply volatility in the health care we provide our veterans, there is no economic argument to privatize the VA.

Strengthen and expand the 2014 Choice Act that enables veterans to obtain care from private doctors under certain circumstances.

Expand mental health services for veterans and servicemembers to meet the urgent mental health needs of our veterans. The risk of suicide among veterans is, alarmingly, 22 percent higher than the rate among civilians. This crisis calls for an immediate increase in coordination between the Department of Defense and the VA.

Improve VA services for our 2 million female veterans, including through support for the Deborah Samson Act which will enhance access to earned services and reduce disparity in care. I support this Act for improving peer to peer counseling services, enhancing gender-specific VA health care, improving the quality of care for infants as well expanding the availability of legal services for female veterans.

Support the inclusion of all qualified Americans who want to serve their country in the military. I will protect the rights of LGBT members who are bravely serving in our military and I oppose President Trump’s ban on transgender service in the military as unnecessary and discriminatory. The military has long been at the forefront of equal opportunity, recognizing that the best military employs the best people – not just the ones that fit a specific racial, gender or sexuality profile. We should take pride in that history, not regress to a less tolerant era.

Support programs to address and prevent sexual assault and domestic violence in the military as well as gender specific programs to treat PTSD suffered by military victims of sexual assault and domestic violence.

Expand and increase coordination among job training and business programs so veterans have the comprehensive tools and networks they need to find a good job or start their own business. I will support and work to enhance the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment services available through the VA to help vets with job training, resume development, job seeking skills coaching and starting their own business. I am committed to enhancing the effectiveness and ease of access to such programs as the Veterans’ Employment and Training Service available through the US Department of Labor.

Fully fund the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill and allow servicemembers to transfer their benefits to family members. I support the preservation of Gainful Employment and Borrower’s Defense legislation to protect veterans against fraud, waste and abuse in relation to educational and employment opportunities. I will support existing programs such as Yellow Ribbon, Tuition-Assistance, and Survivors and Dependents education assistance through the VA Department.

The Right to Vote

The American democratic experiment depends first and foremost on our faith that our vote counts and that every vote counts equally. Any challenge to that belief is an attack on our democracy, and we must demand vigilance to protect against those who would seek to disenfranchise American citizens or otherwise compromise the integrity of our electoral system. This should not be a partisan issue. We all have a stake.

It is imperative that we strengthen the integrity of our elections by making voting, registering to vote, and getting to the polls as easy as possible. We must vigorously oppose gerrymandering, voter suppression and other efforts to make our government anything other than a representative of all the people. We must remove the outsized influence of money on our elections by overturning the Citizens United decision and restoring transparency to all money donated for political purposes.

My opponent, Congressman Peter Roskam, supports the Citizens United decision, which has enabled extremely wealthy individuals and corporations to plow unlimited money into our elections. And he has opposed efforts to shine a light on “dark money” to create greater transparency. In fact, just this year Roskam co-sponsored a Koch Brothers-supported bill that would no longer require nonprofits that donate to political candidates to submit donor lists to the IRS. This would make it much easier to hide donations and cover up the influence of money in politics. He also voted to repeal a rule that required energy companies to disclose their payments to foreign governments.

It has been established without a doubt that Russia actively sought to influence the outcome of the 2016 election. Whether or not the Trump team colluded with Russians is the subject of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigation, which he must be allowed to complete. A government that depends on the consent of the governed cannot long survive if our elections are subject to foreign manipulation or interference. Our political leaders of both parties must be dedicated to finding out the truth about that interference and taking strong action to prevent it from ever happening again.

As a Member of Congress, I would take the following actions to protect the free and fair elections that are central to our democracy:

Introduce legislation to create a “Geneva Convention” for cyberwarfare and election tampering. We need an international framework to create unambiguous lines and an international consensus on how to deal with future cyber attacks – political or otherwise.

Protect our voting machines. I would convene relevant experts from the Department of Defense and the National Security Agency to do a full vetting of voting machine technology to ‘hack-proof’ our election systems from foreign or domestic interference.

Incentivize all states to adopt automatic voter registration to ensure a fully representative democracy. Rather than seeking to restrict or repress the right to vote, we should embrace a national policy of encouraging all who are eligible to exercise their franchise.

Restore the provisions of the Voting Rights Act that were gutted by the Shelby v Holder decision. Subsequent efforts to restrict voting rights demonstrates that this decision has encouraged some state-level authorities to disenfranchise poor, minority and student voters. We must correct that mistake.

Support a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United decision. In the meantime, we should take concrete, immediately achievable actions to increase the transparency of campaign spending, such as the Shareholder Protection Act.

Support efforts to curtail gerrymandering, which has enabled politicians to choose their voters rather than the other way around. We should encourage the states to adopt non-partisan redistricting through successful reforms like Arizona’s non-partisan commission and Iowa’s computer model.

Restore voting rights to non-violent offenders. America is a place where one can redeem themselves and earn a second chance at success, even after breaking the law. Once someone has done their time and paid their debts to society, they should regain the right to vote. A chief role of our criminal justice system is rehabilitation and preparation for successful re-entry into the community. It is not possible to say re-entry is successful when former felons are functionally second-class citizens. Over six million Americans are disenfranchised due to prior felony convictions, many of which are crimes committed years or decades ago and for non-violent, non-sexual offenses. A disproportionate number of those affected are people of color. Congress should work toward smart criminal justice reform, which must include full restoration of voting rights for non-violent offenders.

Move Election Day to the weekend. Getting out to the polls can be hard regardless of what day of the week it is — especially for parents working multiple jobs or lacking access to adequate transportation. Keeping Election Day on Tuesday makes it even harder for more Americans who work regular hours. We should move federal elections to the weekend, to give the more families the most flexibility to exercise their right to vote.

Lower the federal voting age to 16. For many, their first election corresponds to their first time living independently, leading to a corresponding reduction in voting relative to other demographics. By dropping to 16, peoples’ first vote will be with their parents, starting a culture of participation. As states like Illinois institute motor-voter registration, this will also serve to tie the right to drive with the right to vote.

Jobs and Growing our Economy

During my career I’ve rejected the notion that we have to pick between a better environment or creating jobs. I know we can have both, because that’s what I’ve spent my career doing. And I can tell you that the barriers to doing this are neither technological nor economic; they are policy barriers. What we need to do to grow the economy and create jobs is the exact opposite of what Donald Trump and Peter Roskam propose.

Infrastructure is one of the best investments we can make, because those jobs can’t be outsourced. And it gives our businesses and citizens the tools to grow and create even more jobs. We need an infrastructure package that invests both federal dollars and private capital to build critical and necessary bridges, roads, power plants, and industrial facilities that will provide decades of future value. These are the things that are going to help the economy and the middle class — not huge tax cuts skewed to the very wealthy.

Clean energy is another area where we could be growing jobs by investing in research and technology, so that the next generation of wind turbines, solar panels, fuel cells, and more are designed and manufactured right here, by American workers.

Health Care

My approach to U.S. health care reform

The easiest way to evaluate the U.S. health care system and the best ways to improve it is with the proven “best-practices” model that businesses use when evaluating their own competitive landscape. It’s pretty simple: review what other countries are doing, see who’s doing a better job than we are, and then integrate the best pieces of their model into our system.

For health care, the two metrics that matter are the per capita cost of health care and the quality of health outcomes. The U.S. has per capita healthcare costs of nearly $10,000 per year and “mortality rate amenable to health care,” or MAH, of 112/100,000. On both metrics, this is worse than every other country in the OECD. The bulk of industrialized countries cluster between $4,000 – $7,000 per capita annual health care costs and MAH of 60 – 100/100,000.

With a population of 300 million and an annual healthcare cost of $2.7 trillion, that means that just getting down to a midpoint range where our trading partners have already achieved — say, $6,000 per capita annual costs and a MAH of 80 — would lower our annual health care expenses by $1 trillion and save over 100,000 lives per year. Imagine 100,000 Americans living rather than dying each year and the impact that would have on their loved ones and our communities. We cannot even begin to put a price tag on that, but it is a big deal, and a win-win.

So how do we get there?

First, and most importantly, we must insist on true, universal health care. Not just the kind where anyone can go to the emergency room, but the kind that our allies and trading partners have, where everyone, regardless of employment or wealth, has access to full preventative health care services — check-ups, screenings, and all the other early-detection measures that reduce the need for higher-cost, later-stage interventions.

The Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. “Obamacare”) took a big step toward universal health care in the U.S., providing more than 20 million additional Americans with access to affordable insurance for themselves and their families. But the work is not done. We need to finish the job by (1) ensuring that all Americans have health insurance and (2) fixing the flaws in the ACA exchanges to ensure they remain available and solvent.

To address the first goal, we need to add a taxpayer-funded, means-tested base level of health care coverage — means-tested to make sure that this base coverage is only available to those who don’t have health coverage through their employers, unions, V.A. office, Medicare, Medicaid, or personal wealth.

We should also ensure that anyone who doesn’t qualify for this taxpayer-funded plan has the option to buy into that plan — along with whatever other options they may have from their employer or the ACA. This is functionally similar to the Sen. Chris Murphy’s proposal to allow people to buy into Medicare, which I support.

Next, we need to repair the ACA exchanges to make them accessible nationwide. As an employer with staff in different states, it was frustrating for us — and our insurers — to have one set of plans in one state, one in another, one set of plans for private employers, another for government employees, and another for unions. We can make those exchanges much more efficient if we instead set them up to provide a set of national options for people with similar health needs across the country. The ideal health insurance package for a family of 4 with a young kid getting vaccinations and a teenager getting ready for orthodontia are not that different if the family is a union family in West Virginia or a pair of lawyers in Glen Ellyn. Let markets more efficiently allocate services by making sure that both families have the option to buy into the same plan.

Taken together, this approach would provide universal health care, taxpayer-funded for those who cannot afford it and market-provided for those who can. It would provide a path to Medicare for all, but only provided that Americans — at their discretion — chose to buy into that option. It would also provide an identical “menu” of choices for all Americans who elect to buy into for-profit plans, such that if those market-situated providers offer a more competitive value proposition, Americans can — again, at their sole discretion — buy into those options. Thus, it does not stipulate an end-state based on the idealized views of a few hundred legislators in Washington, but rather based on the informed choices of a few hundred million Americans.

Interestingly enough, this approach is very close to the Swiss model, which delivers a lower MAH than any other industrialized country (approximately 55/100,000) and costs $7,000 per capita per year.

In other words, we have real, fully implemented case studies to show that going to the model I propose would lead to lower costs and better care. A win/win. Are there models that deliver still lower costs? Yes — but none of them with better outcomes. So while some may personally decide to choose still cheaper, but lower care costs, that should be subject to personal discretion, not by government fiat.

To understand why it’s so important to allow markets — rather than governments — to choose, one need look no farther than Minnesota. While the U.S. as a whole has a higher MAH than any other industrialized nation, Minnesota as a state has a lower MAH than any other industrialized nation — even Switzerland.

This matters because for an average Minnesotan, a sudden leap to the Swiss model would represent a lower cost and marginally worse health outcomes. That might be a trade off that individuals are willing to make, but we should not assume that all will prefer that option. It also means that we have lessons learned in our own country that we can apply to our health care system without going overseas. (My guess, which I cannot prove, is that a significant reason for the improvement in Minnesota is the Mayo Clinic, which somewhat uniquely compensates their doctors based on health outcomes rather than procedures ordered. Getting economic signals right matters.)

Finally, we cannot talk about health care without also talking about pharmaceutical pricing. It is true that pharmaceuticals in the U.S. cost a lot more than other industrialized countries. It is also true that innovation in drug development is overwhelmingly concentrated in U.S. markets. While we should do everything in our power to lower the cost of pharmaceuticals, we also