Daniel’s Priorities
Making Massachusetts more affordable
Daniel is running because Massachusetts is facing a cost of living crisis, and the State Senate needs problem solvers who want to tackle these challenges head on. Daniel grew up and went to school in Cambridge, and he’s seen so many friends move away because they couldn’t imagine building a life in our state. Over the past two decades, the cost of living has skyrocketed in Massachusetts. Rent, health insurance premiums, energy bills, child care, tuition – each has rapidly increased, outstripping the rate of inflation. That’s why more than one in three current residents are thinking about leaving the state—an unacceptable trend that would jeopardize this District’s future.
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Daniel has been in the fight to end our housing crisis. In Boston, he helped lead an audit of City-owned land to identify opportunities for new affordable housing––and now, hundreds of new units are going into construction. When red tape was delaying construction of affordable housing, Daniel launched reforms to speed up the permit process by fifty percent.
In the State Senate, Daniel will fight to tackle our housing crisis head on.
Daniel will champion efforts to speed up the creation and preservation of affordable housing. He will work to pass a Real Estate Transfer Fee to ensure we have more funds to invest into new housing
He will work to swiftly implement common sense reforms like minimum lot size reform, and changes to our building code like Single Stair Reform, and updating our High Rise code to ensure we can meaningfully bring down the cost of building housing.
He will work to pass into law and implement, not just study, the recommendations from the State’s Unlocking Housing Production Commission.
He will push to create real social housing in Massachusetts by giving our public housing authorities the tools and resources to develop new publicly owned mixed income affordable housing.
He will work to pass the Tenant Right to Purchase Act to protect naturally occurring affordable housing.
To protect renters, he will lead the fight to give Cities the ability to pass rent stabilization to help renters stay in our communities.
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To help residents get around more affordably, Daniel will:
push the MBTA to launch 24-hour bus service to give late night workers at our hospitals and service industry access to affordable, reliable transportation. The system has the buses and the drivers to run 24-hour service today––we just need the political will to get it done.
champion fare-free bus routes across the district, building on the success of 3 fare-free routes in Boston.
build on the success of the Blue Bike system, expanding into Belmont and more places in Watertown, to make it into a truly regional system through state investment, and he will work to lower the annual membership costs to ensure everybody has a chance to get around affordably.
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To bring down energy costs for residents, Daniel will:
fight to ensure that Eversource and National Grid only charge residents for services which are needed to provide safe, affordable, and reliable power, not for unnecessary natural gas lines. This will save residents money and ensure we are only investing in infrastructure that will help us tackle this crisis.
overhaul Mass Save so residents can actually take advantage of this program to decarbonize their homes and lower their energy costs.
To help families afford to live in Massachusetts:
Daniel will lead the effort to bring universal childcare to Massachusetts, so that we can ensure every family can access day care and pre-k for their children.
Daniel believes health care is a human right and will bring down health care premiums, build access to primary care all while fighting for a better, single payer system.
Making Massachusetts a great place to build a good life
It’s not enough just to bring down costs – we have to make Massachusetts a better place to live. Right now the MBTA system shuts down overnight, leaving late-night workers and residents enjoying our city stranded. While restaurants and bars struggle to survive or expand, they’re hamstrung by outdated laws restricting liquor licenses, curtailing hours of operation, and banning happy hour. Daniel knows that with political will, we can turn these challenges into sources of promise and opportunity for our community.
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For too long, the State Legislature has let the MBTA fall apart, and all of us have paid the price––whether waiting for a bus that will never come, or enduring months-long service shutdowns. Daniel knows we can’t keep kicking the can down the road.
Daniel knows that we can harness our transportation system to help residents get around our state affordably. He helped lead the effort to make three bus routes free for residents in Boston, saving hundreds of dollars for working families. He created the Boston Bike Pass, a half price program to help new bike riders use the Blue Bike system affordably.
Daniel will work to accelerate the transformation of our commuter rail system into a true regional rail system with fast, electrified trains arriving every ten minutes or more throughout the day.
He will be a champion for the construction of West Station, and for the realignment of I-90 in Allston to unlock room for new housing and high quality transportation. And he will push for new connections to the Charles River to be finally built for residents.
He will work to make progress on turning the Grand Junction Rail Line into a high quality transit option linking Allston, Brighton and Kendall Square.
He will push to implement congestion pricing on our highways to help reduce standstill traffic and pollution in our neighborhoods.
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Daniel is proud to have worked for Mayor Michelle Wu to help tackle our climate crisis head on. He believes there is much more the legislature can be doing to accelerate our efforts to decarbonize our economy and build a greener Massachusetts. We need to take on our utilities to bring down costs for residents and stop paying for unnecessary fossil fuel infrastructure. Daniel knows we can’t walk away from our efforts to decarbonize our economy, and he’ll fight efforts by the oil and gas lobby to roll back hard fought gains.
He will advocate for the Make Polluters Pay bill to establish a climate superfund paid for by the oil companies that caused the climate crisis.
He will prioritize investments in climate resilience and adaptation to ensure our neighborhoods are prepared for extreme weather and rising sea levels.
He’ll fight to finally update our state bottle bill to ensure we are meaningfully reducing plastic pollution and encouraging recycling.
He will be a champion for the Charles River, and will work to hold the MRWA accountable for cleaning up the river and preventing sewage from polluting our river.
He will be a champion for the climate tech economy, and will ensure that Massachusetts remains the hub for new climate innovations. Daniel believes we need to ensure that companies that start here, like Commonwealth Fusion Systems or Sublime Systems, can scale here and build great jobs in our state.
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Small businesses are the heart of our neighborhoods. Daniel has led efforts to help small businesses thrive, including by launching a successful grant program that helped 90 new businesses take over vacant storefronts throughout Boston. And Daniel helped lead permitting reform to make it easier for entrepreneurs to open a new business.
Daniel will work to equip cities and towns with the tools they need to help small businesses and entrepreneurs grow. He will work to create low interest loan funds and technical assistance programs so our small businesses can thrive.
He will fight to eliminate out-of-date red tape which holds back businesses. That means getting rid of prohibition-era caps on liquor licenses and it means making it easier for restaurants to have live music, serve food, and let patrons dance!
He will work to standardize the inspectional permit process so entrepreneurs don’t get caught up in bureaucracy.
Daniel will lead the effort to repeal the ban on happy hour to give restaurants and bars another tool to bring customers in their doors.
He will fight to give cities the power to set their own local licensing rules on live music, hours of operation, and more.
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Massachusetts’ innovation economy has been the envy of states around the country, and our technology, life sciences, and climate tech companies are transforming our world. But we are facing major headwinds. The Trump Administration has directly targeted our universities, hospitals and technology sector.
We need to do much more to support our economy and Daniel knows we can’t rest on our laurels. He led efforts to recruit new businesses to Greater Boston, and knows what companies are looking for as they seek to expand.
Daniel will prioritize growing our innovation economy with new investments and support so that our biotech sector can weather the current downturn, and Massachusetts can be the global leader for climate tech innovations.
He will work to centralize the efforts of the alphabet soup of agencies that do business recruitment into a lean, focused agency that can compete relentlessly to recruit companies to and keep companies in Massachusetts.
He will prioritize tackling our affordability crisis so we can retain the amazing talent that has made our state the home of so much innovation.m description
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Daniel knows that arts and culture are critical for a thriving, connected community. He will be the culture senator focused on ensuring our arts and creative industries can thrive in Massachusetts by fighting to expand funding and support our creative sector.
He is proud of his record helping to fight cultural displacement and expand access to the arts. When an out-of-state developer bought the Sound Museum in Allston Brighton and tried to evict hundreds of musicians, Daniel helped lead the successful effort to fight back by negotiating the transfer of a $17 million dollar building for Boston to transform into new, permanent affordable music recording and rehearsal space in the neighborhood, and new public housing.
When Mayor Wu asked Daniel to lead the effort to create Boston Family Days, he brought together the leaders of our state’s world class cultural institutions like the Museum of Science, the Museum of Fine Arts, and the Boston Ballet to allow every Boston family visit for free.
Daniel will work to increase funding for the arts in the state budget to ensure this vital sector is getting the investment it deserves.
He will be a champion for cultural land trusts to help stem the tide of cultural displacement, and to expand new affordable spaces for artists and musicians to create.
Daniel will fight for arts education funding in our public schools so every child gets exposed to the arts.
He will work to make it easier to open new galleries, music venues, and studios so that artists can create and share their work.
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Our public schools must provide a high quality education to every student, no matter their background. Daniel will lead the effort to protect our schools from the Trump administration and ensure every classroom has the resources our students and educators need.
Daniel will work to realize the full vision of the Student Opportunity Act so that our students and teachers don’t have to fight for the basics that every classroom needs.
Daniel believes we need to shake up the Massachusetts School Building Authority application process to address decades of deferred maintenance in our school facilities and give districts the resources they need to renovate our aging school buildings.
Daniel will fight to protect immigrant students in our classrooms and our schools. It’s unacceptable that so many students and families are afraid to come to school for fear of being picked up by ICE. There is much more Massachusetts could be doing to protect them and ensure our schools where every kid is welcome and safe.
Daniel will use his platform to fight back against cruel federal funding cuts to programs that support students with disabilities. At a time when the costs of special education are rising dramatically, federal cuts will only make it more challenging for educators to provide the individualized services and support that students with disabilities need.
Daniel knows we need to do more to continue recruiting amazing teachers who reflect our diverse communities– and make sure they have the ongoing support to stay. He will take teacher burnout seriously, and work to build close partnerships with the Greater Boston area’s incredible network of higher education institutions so we can continue to grow career pipelines for aspiring educators from diverse backgrounds.
Taking on the Broken Status Quo on Beacon Hill
Massachusetts has the least effective state legislature in the Country. It’s shocking that despite massive democratic super majorities, by the time they went on recess for 2025, the State House had only passed 67 bills – the lowest number on record for decades. Of these, only 3 were statewide policy changes. All this at a time when Donald Trump and his administration are attacking our state.
Daniel is running because he thinks we can do better. He thinks residents deserve a state senate that works urgently to solve the pressing issues facing us: standing up to the Trump administration, tackling our affordability crisis, and making this a great place to build a good life.
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Daniel is challenging a fifteen year incumbent who serves in Senate leadership and who has helped to concentrate power and accelerate legislative dysfunction. Senator Brownsberger helped implement a new stipend system whereby Senate Leadership can dole out so-called leadership bonuses worth tens of thousands of dollars to senators who toe the line and vote with leadership. He is one of the highest paid members in the senate, and receives $20,468 extra as chair of the Senate Committee on the Census, which is among the dozen committees that have not done any legislating this session. He led the effort to abolish term limits for the Senate President, term limits that had been set to prevent concentration of power and corruption. Senator Brownsberger will never challenge this broken status quo, because it works for him.
Massachusetts is the only state in the country where the governor, legislature, and judiciary are all exempt from public records law. Massachusetts State Voters have said enough — 72% of them voted last November to require the State Legislature to submit to a legislative audit. And Beacon Hill Democrats, including Senate leadership where Brownsberger serves as President Pro Tempore, have spent over a year refusing to comply. They are defying the voters.
Daniel will be an independent, progressive voice fighting to take on the broken status quo on Beacon Hill. He will stand up for residents, not for Senate leadership.
As Senator, Daniel will:
Support the audit of the legislature and support subjecting the legislature to public records law, like almost every other legislature in the U.S., so voters can understand what their government is doing every day.
Push for legislative stipend reform in the State House to ensure all legislators can be true representatives for their constituents, not just for leadership.
Advocate for common sense laws to make it easier to vote and participate in our democracy like same day voter registration.
Fight to support the State House union, and stand side by side with any workers seeking to organize for better working conditions. He knows every worker deserves the right to organize for workplace protections and better wages.
Work to bring back term limits for the Senate President to ensure power is not concentrated in the hands of only a few people.
Refuse to take corporate PAC money and continue to champion efforts for campaign finance reform to get big money out of our politics.
Standing up to the Trump Administration
The communities of this district are under attack by the lawless Trump Administration. Ordinary citizens are stepping up to protect our neighbors and fight back. But all the State Senate can manage is a launching a committee to consider potential impacts. That is unacceptable. We need urgent action to protect our immigrant communities, support our innovation economy, and ensure Massachusetts remains a beacon of hope.
Daniel will be a leader to ensure Massachusetts is standing up to Donald Trump, and that we serve as a national model for a progressive government that protects every community.
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As Senator, Daniel will:
Pass the Safe Communities Act and the Dignity Not Deportations Act, to protect immigrant communities and ensure we are not using state resources to collaborate with ICE.
Fight to protect our schools, court houses, and places of Worship from ICE and other federal agencies acting lawlessly.
End Massachusetts’ 287(g) agreement with ICE, to stop our shameful collaboration with the lawless agency.
Support the DRIVE initiative,supporting scientific research and maintaining our status as a hub of innovation, at a time when the Trump Administration is targeting our scientists and researchers.
Stand up for LGBTQ+ community members, particularly trans people and youth, to protect them from federal attacks and ensure they can continue to access life saving services.
Advocate to increase funding for housing first policies to resist efforts by the Trump Administration to put formerly homeless residents back on the street.
Push Massachusetts to be a leader in global human rights by advocating to divest our pensions from weapons manufacturers and other companies that profit off the death and destruction in Gaza, Sudan and other conflicts around the world.