And how is a person with a debilitating illness supposed to fulfill the Medicaid work requirements coming in January 2027?

“I’m absolutely opposed; it was absolutely ridiculous. For those of you who don’t know, Donald Trump and his congressional allies and enablers passed what they call the Big Beautiful [Bill], and what the [bill] did was basically throw hundreds of thousands of people off their health insurance, and is also exploding the national debt. I think it’s as much as $3 trillion to pay for tax cuts for millionaires, billionaires, and large corporations. It’s absolutely devastating. I’m a nurse practitioner, and I have patients that have lost or will lose their health insurance because of the actions of the federal government. One thing that they’re having to do is actually reapply for health insurance. When someone is doing all they can and working hard, it’s hard to sign up for health insurance every six months or to show that you qualify for it. So I absolutely oppose these. What we’re trying to do on the state level is trying to back-fill as much as we can. I mean, it’s a gigantic hole. We’re talking about billions of dollars of state money that we don’t have, that the federal government should have, that we pay taxes for. What we actually did in the state government was increase our payments to providers who accept Medicaid, and we’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars that we invested so that doctors and healthcare providers can actually get reimbursed for the care that they’re providing. Unfortunately, there’s only so much we can do at the state level because this is billions of dollars. What we’re hoping is that we get a new Congress and they’re reversing these cuts. Also for the folks with debilitating illnesses, that was exactly their plan, to throw you off your health insurance because these are the most restrictive work requirements and most people who are getting thrown off actually qualify for for Medicaid and should qualify under the work requirements.”

Question 2 - Alden Park Tenants Association: What can be done at the state level to lower the cost of housing and enforce laws that hold corporate landlords accountable for unsafe living conditions?

“I actually lived at Alden Park, so I know exactly what you’re going through, and I’ve also had problems with really bad management, and it’s absolutely unacceptable that people are just treated like garbage. The first thing I want to say is what we’ve done is I’ve worked on a bipartisan way to actually increase access to affordable housing. One of the first laws that I got signed into law was actually increasing substantially our investment in affordable housing. We increased our investment from $60 million a year from the real estate transfer tax to $100 million, and that was a bipartisan bill that I got signed. Each year, more money is going to affordable housing. I’ve also been supportive of legislation that’s actually turning industrial and nonprofit places that are abandoned into affordable housing. We just did that at the Philadelphia Nursing Home downtown, it was a bill that I co-authored with state Rep. Keith Harris and state Sen. Sharif Street. We got that signed into law, so that’s going to be transferred into affordable housing.

I think moving forward, what we have to do is we have to make sure that we’re holding these corporate landlords [accountable], corporate owners that are basically not in our community that are somewhere else, making hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars off of tenants that they’re not really taking care of. I’m working on bipartisan legislation right now that would actually ban AI from being the property manager, and so that there’s always going to be a human. Also I’m working on legislation that makes more affordable housing possible. So getting rid of some of these restrictive zoning laws that have make it really hard for someone to have a single property converted into a duplex, triplex or a quadplex.”

Question 3 - Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education: How will you ensure stable funding for green space in Philadelphia to increase community access and funding to nature?

We’re actually really blessed because in Northwest Philadelphia, I think there was just an article in Philadelphia magazine about it. How we have all this green space in Northwest Philadelphia. One of those anchors is the Schuylkill Center. I’m really excited to announce that we’ve been able to get hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant money, over a million dollars recently to help the Schuylkill Center. That’s making sure that people have access to this green space. They’re making it more accessible. They’re renovating it. They’re trying to increase trail access so that people actually have access to this resource. We need to make sure that we’re investing in resources like the Schuylkill Center, which has a unionized workforce, to make sure that we are keeping this place protected and that it will never be developed. Also, money for the Wissahickon. I’ve been working to secure over a million dollars for the Wissahickon for community groups and the groups that take care of the Wissahickon. We were able to get substantial funding for it, because if we don’t invest in it, we’re at risk of losing it.

I’m really proud that this is something that we’ve focused on, that we’ve been trying to get more and more investment. I think on the state level, what we can do in terms of policy is making sure that we’re protecting our green spaces. I’ve been a big sponsor of legislation that is protecting our green and open spaces. That includes farmland and making sure that we’re protecting our farmland using state dollars to buy up places and then make sure that it can never ever be developed. I’m really proud of that work. I’m also working to make sure that we’re protecting access to our farmers, who cultivate this land and keep that open. So it’s a lot of work that we’re doing in the state level.”

Question 4 - Germantown United CDC: What state-level policies and investments would you advance to help neighborhoods like Germantown retain affordable housing, support locally owned small businesses, and improve the neighborhood’s infrastructure while ensuring longtime residents have a meaningful role in the process?

“I’ve been working to make sure that residents actually have a voice. I was very discouraged when I was running to learn that there were developers who were really bad-faith actors that went after residents when they would speak their mind about development. Instead of working with these neighbors, they sue them. These are called SLAPP suits [Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation]. Before I was in office, Pennsylvania had one of the worst records for SLAPP suits, and I think we were rated ‘D’ in terms of being able to [stop] these cases against people who were speaking up against bad development. We were actually able to sign one of the strongest protections for people against SLAPP suits in the nation, and that was a bill that I helped with state Rep. Ryan Bizzarro to really help preserve the voice of neighbors.

On a more local level, it’s really working to drive investment. I’ve been working with the community associations like the Chestnut Hill Community Association, the East Falls Development Corporation, Roxborough Development Corporation, Manayunk Development Corporation, to make sure that the small businesses, the places that need investments, were able to draw back state money for it. We’re talking about our tax dollars that we’re spending. I also want to highlight a bill that I think is really going to help folks in Germantown, and this is the Golden Girls bill that allows people who are unrelated to be able to live together. Right now, it’s actually illegal in certain places to be able to have more than three roommates. So, if someone wants to live with someone and share rent, as long as it’s safe, they should be able to do it. And that’s what that Golden Girls bill does.”

Question 5 - Chestnut Hill Local: Where has your political party fallen short in state/local politics? What would you like to see done differently in the coming years?

“I’ve been a state rep for four years, but before that, I was an organizer. I was a committee person. I knocked on a lot of doors, and I think where we really have a lot of need for improvement is making sure that we’re focusing on working people, which is the lifeblood of the Democratic Party. I think where we’ve kind of lost our way is not focusing on things like affordability. Right now, people are really struggling to be able to just have an existence here, to be able to afford groceries, rents, childcare, housing costs, everything has gone up, and it’s only been made worse by bad policies. People need to know that we’re fighting for them, and so part of that, first off, is going to people. I spend a lot of my time knocking on people’s doors because that’s the best polling you can get, is when you go to a door and talk to someone and hear from them directly. That’s the best focus group, and engaging with people and listening to them.

I’m really proud to be leading the legislation that will increase once and for all minimum wage in Pennsylvania to raise it above $7.25. We’ve worked on a great bill that’s going to bring it to at least $15 an hour, tied to cost of living, and that is one of the the ways that we can sort of lift people up. We actually want to go higher, but right now that’s sort of what we’re working on. I think also too is making sure that we’re actually talking to everyone. Unfortunately, there’s been this trend where Democrats are sort of only in certain areas, quote unquote, blue areas, and they’re not really talking to folks in the rest of the state. So I’ve actually been going across the state, talking to voters, and also making sure that we are engaging these people and that we’re asking for their votes and asking what they care about. So I’ve been able to do this, and I’m going to continue it.

Closing statement.

“Hey everybody, State Representative Tarik Khan. Make sure you get out and vote on Nov. 3. This is a huge election. They say that every election is important, and this one is especially important. We have the control of Congress at stake, and we need to make sure that we are also flipping the Pennsylvania Senate. Right now, so many of the bills that we are passing in the Pennsylvania House, bills like minimum wage, helping people get access to healthcare, making sure we’re making transit more affordable, and investing in SEPTA, helping to bring down the cost of housing, getting corporations out of our healthcare, child care, getting folks support for child care to be able to make that more affordable, paid family leave. All those bills are getting stuck in the Pennsylvania Senate, and we have an opportunity now to actually flip the Senate.

Also, from all the headwinds we’re getting from Washington, making it extremely hard, driving up our costs, making fuel more expensive, making everything more expensive from the federal level, we have an opportunity to actually get some of those folks that are enabling Donald Trump out of office and flip the Senate, and also flip the U.S. Congress. This is why it’s an important election. I encourage everyone to get out and vote. Encourage your friends wherever they are, family across across the country, to make sure that they’re voting. If you’re able to support candidates, I know we’re getting tons of messages on our phones. I probably have like 30 messages right now from just this morning from candidates, but the truth is, it is important. It is important to donate. It’s important to knock on doors. It’s important to write postcards for those of you that do that, to encourage other people to get out and vote. Because the reality is, is that the democracy that we have is not a given, and we have to make sure that we are fighting for it. Included in that is making sure that we’re voting. So I encourage you all to get out and vote. If you can donate money, if you can write letters, if you can make a phone call to encourage others to do the same, I encourage you to do it. And thanks for your support.