Casey's campaign website highlights the following issues:

Our political process favors the will of the parties over the will of the people, it favors the interests of the well-connected over the interests of the majority, and it favors opposition over political cooperation.

We know about these problems, and we know how to fix them. What we seem to lack is the political will to change things.

A primary driver is partisan redistricting, for which Mike supports an independent redistricting commission.

Every 10 years, the United States performs a census, gathering information about how many people live in certain areas. With this updated information, new lines have to be drawn to ensure that our electoral districts have roughly equal representation.

Virginia, along with most of the United States, allows our legislature to draw our district lines. That means that our legislators are choosing their own district lines, which is an inherent conflict of interest. It would be nice to give them the benefit of the doubt that they will draw fair, reasonable lines, but history has shown time and again that our elected officials would rather have easier elections, and favor their political party over improving our political process.

To solve the problem of gerrymandering, we need an independent redistricting commission. Independent of the legislature, independent of partisan politics, and without conflicts of interest. There's no way to fully remove politics from any process, but that doesn't mean we should surrender to politics entirely.

I have a friend that I met back in 2011. Funny, smart, all around decent guy. I knew him for a little over a year before I moved away, and we didn't really talk for a few years. I wish I had stayed in touch, because when we reconnected in 2015, the story he had to tell was horrifying. See, he had Diabetes. His family couldn’t afford treatment when he was younger, and that seemed ok at the time. He wasn't showing any symptoms. But later, he started showing symptoms, and he still couldn't afford more than the most basic symptomatic treatment. He was relatively poor, without insurance, but making just enough money to not have Medicaid coverage. And insulin is expensive. So his Diabetes when mostly untreated, and by 2015, he was legally blind. Now, of course, he is unable to work, and is covered by not only Medicaid, but Disability (SSDI).

So, thanks to soaring prices and an ineffective social system for preventative care, a productive and good member of society will forever have a diminished life (although I will say, I still enjoy hanging out with him).

The flip-side to the emotional argument here is a cold one of cost. Because we as a society were too cheap to pay for preventative care when it could have mattered, we now bear a significantly increased burden. Not only is his life diminished, but we are all diminished, morally, financially, and in our productive and creative capacity.

His is not an isolated story. There are millions of stories like that. I support Universal Health Care, pushing just beyond preventative and maintenance care. I don't support it because it's a human right. I don't support even support it because of my friend. I support it because when more people have access to health care, our society is better.

Here in Northern Virginia, traffic is a constant headache, and for too long, we have responded to clogged roads by building more and bigger roads. I don't believe our traffic problems are the result of not having enough roads; I believe they're the result of too many people driving too often compounded by a quickly growing population. Until we fix that fundamental problem, building more roads will only further incentivize driving, resulting in the same traffic 5 years later, at the low, low cost of millions of dollars.

Instead, I propose that we support the roads we already have, but invest in greatly expanding our mass transit rather than expanding or adding roads. Not only is it far more efficient for our population, but it's also more scalable as our population continues its staggering growth – and it's more cost effective, because it pays itself back more quickly. Additionally, in the case of buses, the up front investment is substantially lower as well. Right now, driving is almost always cheaper, faster, and more reliable than public transit. I propose that we take a hard look at how quickly our population density is growing and start investigating solutions that won't be outdated and insufficient at conception (like expanding our roads is).

Personally, I try to bike, walk, or take public transit everywhere I can, but I get that that's just not a reasonable option for most people. A couple of months ago, when my car broke down for a few weeks, there were some things I just couldn't do. So, with how Northern Virginia is currently set up, people need cars. And when people need cars, they use them. Because even if there is a public transit option, driving is almost always cheaper, faster, and more reliable.

So, what I propose is simple on it's face. Instead of investing in more road infrastructure, we invest in making our mass transit options cheaper, faster, and more reliable. When combined with sensible community development that doesn't put people miles from where they need to be, everybody's lives will be improved, *including* people who decide to keep driving (as there will be less people on the road).

Specifically, I support increasing the amount of Virginia money going to WMATA, preferably through a dedicated levy, along with adding several more bus routes and more buses. Metro can't keep increasing fares and decreasing services.

I support spending some more money to expand Metro in such a way that people will use it for more than commuting. It may have been cheaper to just use the existing right-of-way for the Reston Town Center stop on the Silver line, but it's a 15 minute walk to where people might actually want to go.

I support building a VRE line to connect the western suburbs to the orange/silver lines directly, using the I-66 right-of-way.

I support creating a regulatory framework to support intra-city and intra-regional private mass transit options.

I believe that climate change is one of the most important issues of our time – if left unchecked, our future on this planet could become uncertain. As recognized by climate change scientists and even the US Military, we are faced with a clear and present danger in climate change.

This is directly applicable here in Virginia – being a coastal state, we're susceptible to nearly $92 billion worth of residential property damage due to climate related weather shifts. On top of that, nearly half of our counties, including Falls Church, are at risk of water shortages by 2050.

I propose that we accelerate the shift towards renewable energy that we began in 2008, when we reduced our state energy dependence on coal from 44% to 20% over four years. However, instead of migrating to natural gas (all but 2% of that shift went to natural gas), I propose that we move to 100% renewable or nuclear energy by 2030 – in so doing, we will both create new jobs and become the example for other states to follow when it comes to energy policy.