Representative Liz Miranda is the State Representative of the 5th Suffolk and is running for State Senate in the 2nd Suffolk. She is a community organizer, former youth worker, and entrepreneur who ran for office in 2018 to center those who have struggled when the government left us out of the conversation. Propelled to act after gun violence took the life of her brother, Representative Miranda has been a tireless fighter for the constituents of the 5th Suffolk, and families across the Commonwealth.
AS STATE SENATOR I WILL:
1. Fight to establish rent stabilization to preserve and expand affordable housing for Boston’s families, renters, and seniors, and ensure our communities experience investment and development without displacement. Fund homeownership programs to build intergenerational wealth and equity, particularly in Black and Brown communities.
2. End discriminatory zoning that aims to prevent the construction of affordable and multi-family housing across the Commonwealth.
3. Fight to ensure Massachusetts renters have access to common sense tenant protections such as the right of first refusal and the right to counsel.
4. Pass legislation to provide our elders with the tools to age in the communities they have invested so much in.
AS STATE SENATOR I WILL:
1. Continue my fight to end the use of solitary confinement and life without parole in Massachusetts. I will champion alternative solutions to the tools currently used that fuel mass incarceration in our Commonwealth.
2. Demand the end of dehumanizing police tactics that harm and kill black and brown people. We need to demilitarize our local police, ensure accountability, and reinvent what we call public safety.
3. Fund creative solutions to prevent violence by giving people pathways out of poverty, combating racism, and addressing trauma.
4. Continue to invest in year-round youth jobs, after-school programs, and nonprofits that provide safe spaces for our young people to mitigate violence and prepare them for a successful future.
5. Strengthen re-entry services and break the systemic cycle of incarceration by providing career preparation, job training, and support systems to those recently released from prison.
6. Commit to visiting incarcerated residents of the Commonwealth as I’ve done as State Representative to center their voices in policy responses.
AS STATE SENATOR I WILL:
1. Continue to lead on electrifying our transit system to mitigate the disparate impacts of diesel use in Black and Brown communities such as disproportionate asthma rates.
2. Expanding access to quality bus service and rapid transit into every neighborhood. I’m committed to connecting all of the communities across the Second Suffolk with reliable transit infrastructure. Lead on making the MBTA fare-free to reduce traffic, improve equity and accessibility for all, and grow the economy.
AS STATE SENATOR I WILL:
1. Advocate for establishing universal state medicare for all system to strengthen our overall public health which now more than ever is interconnected with individual health.
2. Support the expansion of an education curriculum around culturally competent healthcare to save lives in our community and diversify the healthcare field.
3. Continue to ensure any federal aid money being spent in the Commonwealth prioritizes communities and small businesses that were most impacted by the pandemic.
4. Fund grants, workforce development programs, and entrepreneurship classes to break barriers to business ownership and to allow for small businesses to recover post-COVID-19.
AS STATE SENATOR I WILL:
1. Continue to ensure that our community gets a fair share of contracts and jobs during clean energy development projects like off-shore wind and solar.
2. Fight for neighborhood voice in where new energy facilities are created and ensure there aren’t adverse impacts that would affect residents.
3. Pass legislation that would eliminate housing-related emissions by refitting homes and strive to transition buildings to clean heating and electricity.
AS STATE SENATOR I WILL:
1. Work towards creating a state center of mental health first aid so our communities can quickly receive care after a traumatic event.
2. Create a funding mechanism to hire social workers, community members, and clinicians to create an alternative response to mental health crises other than police.
3. Fund community health centers to ensure greater access to mental health care in communities of color.
4. Pass legislation to support greater diversity in the mental health workforce by addressing barriers to licensure.
AS STATE SENATOR I WILL:
1. Protect the right to access equitable reproductive care, especially with the increasing national attacks on the right to choose.
2. Strive to advance an accessible continuum of reproductive, birthing, and postpartum care for all regardless of financial ability, gender identity, or immigration status.
3. Prioritize closing the racial wealth gap by setting state investment requirements in Black and Brown business.
4. Redirect marijuana revenue to close monetary barriers to cannabis licenses and host agreements for those most impacted by the war on drugs.
AS STATE SENATOR I WILL:
1. Increase social-emotional services for young people inside and outside of school.
2. Fund ventilation upgrades at colleges like Roxbury Community College and K-12 buildings to protect our kids from current or future airborne viruses.
3. Champion the legislative approval of a charter change to allow for a voting and fully stipended youth seat on the Boston School Committee.
4. Fund safe spaces such as community centers, drop-in centers, and other initiatives, for young people in every community in the Commonwealth, starting with those most often overlooked and underinvested in.
5. Fight to pass comprehensive sex and health education to arm our youth with knowledge to lead healthy lives.
6. Work hand in hand with young people by bringing them into the legislative process, and act on their priorities.
Attract companies: support legislation that attracts employers who will hire from within our communities and bolster the economy of the district
Empower organized labor initiatives: advocate for legislative actions that protect workers and help families thrive
Skills of the future: invest in education and training that encourages innovation, small businesses and entrepreneurship
Invest in a regional transportation solution: support initiatives that provide equitable access across the commonwealth for district
Opportunities for the next generation: engage and empower young people, particularly the ages 18-24, within our communities, and keep them off the streets.
Fund skill development: create vocational and technical training programs for youth, enable access to meaningful summer and year round jobs, and ensure fair job-market competition
Early childhood and adult education: Expand programs from pre-k, early childhood educational programs to continuing adult education and vocational/trade initiatives
Special education and ESL/ELL programs: support their continued funding and increase the scope of these state-run, locally-led services
Protect our educators: give them the resources they need to have thriving careers and make the impact they desire to in the classroom
Development without displacement: fight displacement so that residents can work together to build a community that lives on for generations to come
Affordability: Advocate to control rents and keep our district affordable with a welcoming community and economic growth for all residents
Criminal justice reform: ensure implementation of recent criminal justice reform, reduce punitive practices that perpetuate a cyclical problem, and advocate for community based solutions to aid re-entry of previously incarcerated residents
Protect immigrants: continue support for Boston’s status as a sanctuary city and fight attempts to deport immigrants protected under DACA.
Women’s rights: secure reproductive rights and champion closing disparity gaps for an improvement in public health for women of racial minorities
An Act to reform police standards and shift resources to build a more equitable, fair and just commonwealth that values Black lives and communities of color.
Liz Miranda has visited over 200 incarcerated residents of the Commonwealth to center their voices in policy responses to mass incarceration. Working with the survivor-led MASC coalition, Liz filed legislation to end solitary confinement in Massachusetts prisons. After her advocacy, DOC committed to ending solitary confinement over the next three years, but Liz knows that even one more day in solitary confinement is dangerous and inhumane for incarcerated residents, and has stood with Rep. Brandy Fluker Oakley to fight for an immediate end to solitary confinement.
Liz Miranda filed and passed An Act to Reduce Racial Inequities in Maternal Health, which established a special legislative commission to investigate and recommend policy solutions to tackle the public health crisis of racial disparities in maternal health. The commission is predominantly led by Black women who are midwives, doulas, nurses, researchers and community members who have been most impacted by inequities in maternal health outcomes.
“Reproductive justice is racial justice; we cannot do this work in silos. Our response to stark racial inequities in maternal health must start with policy solutions that center and place anti-racism at the forefront. Legislatures were not designed to center Black women—they were designed to exclude us. I am working to change that in Massachusetts.” –Rep. Liz Miranda, April 12th, 2021
As a result of Rep. Miranda’s legislation and advocacy to extend postpartum coverage from 60 days to 12 months and ensure doula care coverage, MassHealth has included both critical tools in their amendment demonstration request to the federal government. This extension of care is critically important in improving maternal health outcomes in communities of color.
As the daughter of immigrants who’s experienced the tragedy of family separation, with her father and brother being deported in 1998, Rep. Liz Miranda has led the fight to pass the Safe Communities Act in Massachusetts to end the Commonwealth’s collaboration and involvement with ICE. She has fought to end family separation and ensure Massachusetts leads the way on immigrant rights.
Liz’s grandfather, in the 1930’s after taking a journey to Boston on a boat for 4 months, worked on a cranberry bog in Scituate. She never met him, but from an early age, understood the immigrant experience as one of hard work, sacrifice, and hope in pursuit of a dream deferred.