The Issues
Learn where Carol “Kitty” Hafner stands on the issues facing Alaska and our nation.
“Alaska holds great potential, but needs an effective representative in the U.S. Senate to reach it. Join me, and together we will build a better and fairer future for Alaska’s working class. We have much good work to do.”
— Carol “Kitty” Hafner
Policy Positions
Click any topic below to learn more about U.S. Senate candidate Carol “Kitty” Hafner’s policy positions:
- Medicare for All
- Overhauling the V.A. to Help Veterans
- Legalizing Cannabis Federally
- Investing in Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian Communities Nationally
- Net Neutrality and Broadband Access
- Protecting the Environment with a Green New Deal and Opposing Oil Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
- Tuition-Free Higher Education for All
- Ending the Detention of Refugees and Separation of Families and Abolishing ICE
- A Smart-on-Crime Approach with Harm Reduction
- A Foreign Policy of Military Neutrality and Privacy Rights at Home
- Supporting the Rights of Women and LGBT People
Medicare for All
My late mother was a registered nurse and the daughter of immigrants who believed in treating everyone, regardless of their ability to pay. She taught me early on the importance of health care. Our health care system is broken, and the Affordable Care Act, commonly called Obamacare, which simply makes health insurance mandatory, has failed to fix these problems.
With Medicare for All, a system similar to Britain’s National Health Service, the United States can join the rest of the developed world in ensuring that all our citizens are given access to quality health care services without a middleman. This will take away profits from unscrupulous insurance companies and reduce health care costs.
Prescription drug costs are also out of control. All prescription medications must be covered for all citizens under Medicare for All, with the United States government using its significant negotiating power on behalf of our citizens to end medical price gouging and ensure that everyone is covered.
With Medicare for All, we will have a single-payer health care program that allows people facing serious illness to focus on their health without worrying about sky-high medical bills and financial ruin.
Medical cannabis and other alternative treatments, such as acupuncture, must also be covered under Medicare for All.
Overhauling the V.A. to Help Veterans
Veterans have put their lives on the line to defend the United States and serve our country, yet we have a system that provides substandard care and has resulted in avoidable deaths, infections, negligence, and additional stress for those who were put in harm’s way by our policymakers.
Veterans frequently face difficulty receiving payments for service-connected disabilities and lack proper care for psychological illnesses caused by war, such as post-traumatic stress disorder. This is unacceptable.
The Department of Veterans Affairs must be reorganized, and a wide-scale investigation must be undertaken to determine the causes of corruption, incompetence, negligence, and poor-quality care. Those found responsible must be fired and, where appropriate, criminally prosecuted for violating the great trust our nation has placed in them to deliver quality services to military veterans.
Veterans must receive world-class medical care, just compensation for service-connected disabilities without delay, and access to specialized housing programs across the country to end veteran homelessness.
Those who have served face unique challenges, and it is a grave embarrassment to our country when we fail to properly care for those who put themselves on the line to defend the United States of America.
I support the use of medical cannabis and MDMA-assisted psychotherapy to help manage treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress disorder in veterans through the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Legalizing Cannabis Federally
Marijuana has been shown to have significant medical benefits and is safer than alcohol for adult-use consumption. The misguided War on Drugs has been a failure and has resulted in good citizens being unjustly branded as criminals while enabling cartels to flourish.
It goes against common sense to arrest people for marijuana possession. Voters in many states have enacted laws allowing legal cannabis use for medical purposes and adult use as a safer alternative to substances such as alcohol.
Minorities and young people are most frequently targeted by law enforcement over marijuana possession. This wastes law-enforcement resources and contributes to an environment of distrust between citizens and the police.
Although marijuana is legal under some state laws, federal marijuana prohibition laws must be changed so that legal cannabis is no longer trapped in a murky area between state and federal law.
Cannabis businesses struggle to gain access to basic banking services and remain under threat from federal law-enforcement agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Administration. These agencies can selectively choose to prosecute marijuana businesses and destroy the livelihoods of state-authorized business owners and cannabis-industry workers.
Investing in Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian Communities Nationally
The life expectancy for an American Indian or Alaska Native person born in 2021 was 65.2 years, approximately 11.2 years less than the life expectancy of a non-Hispanic White person born in the same year.
On Wyoming’s Wind River Reservation, by further comparison, the average lifespan has been reported as only 49 years.
These disparities are connected to poor access to health care, poverty, unemployment, and violent crime, all occurring within the history and continuing effects of racial and cultural genocide against the Indigenous peoples of the United States.
This is a federal crisis and should be a national embarrassment. Our government has treated Indigenous communities poorly for generations, often because of systemic racism.
Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian communities have long struggled with poor access to employment, education, health care, healthy foods, qualified police officers, transportation, and culturally appropriate mental health services.
These factors have contributed to lower life expectancy, domestic violence, poverty, the breakdown of cultural traditions, mental health problems including suicide, substance abuse, and an inability to continue ways of life that existed before the founding of the United States.
Through federal funding, we must provide job opportunities, culturally affirming education and health care services, access to healthy and fresh foods, qualified and accountable policing agencies, and reliable transportation.
Affordable transportation is particularly important for remote Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian communities. It can provide access to major cities while also allowing visitors to reach these communities in ways that responsibly support local employment and economic development.
Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian cultures, languages, traditions, lands, and communities must be protected and preserved in accordance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Net Neutrality and Broadband Access
As a hallmark of American innovation, the Internet has created countless jobs and provided people of all income levels with an affordable way to exercise their constitutional right to free speech.
Net neutrality means that all Internet traffic must be treated with equal priority.
Actions by the Trump administration threaten the fair and equal access that helped turn the information superhighway into a global success. Without net neutrality, the Internet could become a censored and controlled selection of corporate websites, with limited or nonexistent access for regular people, nonprofit organizations, and entrepreneurs seeking to share ideas or build new technologies.
The Internet is a road that we all must share, and it works best when every Internet user and content producer has equal access to the systems that carry our data.
We must also ensure that everyone in the United States, including those in the most remote and isolated communities, has access to high-speed broadband.
Broadband access supports job creation, access to information, online education, civic participation, and the delivery of health care services through telemedicine.
We have a great country with tremendous technological ability. There is no excuse for any American home to be unable to access fast and reliable Internet service.
Given the opportunities and advancements offered through this infrastructure, the government must ensure that all Americans can get online quickly and affordably.
Protecting the Environment with a Green New Deal and Opposing Oil Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Although the federal Green New Deal has yet to pass, its influence has provided part of the legislative foundation for the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
Its goals of combining large-scale climate action with social equality have influenced support for clean energy, improved manufacturing processes, and environmental justice.
The Green New Deal is the best recent proposal to protect our environment. We have only one environment, and we all must share it and preserve it for future generations.
Pollution from a variety of sources has already proven to be enormously damaging to human, animal, and plant health, while disrupting delicate ecosystems.
Climate change, plastics in our water, toxic waste, oil spills, and nuclear contamination are among the serious problems we face. Illnesses such as cancer, including childhood cancers, are among the consequences of failing to protect our environment.
We must have a robust Environmental Protection Agency that regulates activities affecting our environment and holds accountable those who harm it.
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a pristine part of Alaska that faces irreparable harm if oil drilling is allowed within it.
The refuge does not contain enough oil to meaningfully affect oil prices or end our national dependence on foreign energy sources, many of which come from nations hostile to American values.
The only long-term jobs created by such drilling may be environmental cleanup jobs attempting, often in vain, to remediate the pollution and spills caused by short-sighted drilling activities.
We must harness renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, and biofuels while expanding the use of recyclable materials. These steps can reduce our carbon footprint and begin the long process of healing the Earth for current and future generations.
Tuition-Free Higher Education for All
As a higher education administrator for many years, I am all too familiar with the high cost of a college education in the United States.
While citizens of other countries can improve their lives through higher education without becoming saddled with debt, American students are forced to take out enormous loans to complete a college degree.
At one time, it was possible for Americans to obtain a decent job without higher education. This is no longer generally the case. A college degree has become the new high school diploma for hiring in many professions.
For our economy to compete with rising global powers such as China and India, we must ensure that all students can progress as far academically as their abilities allow without worrying about how to pay for it.
Our investment in higher education will be returned through better-educated citizens who earn more money, pay more taxes over their lifetimes, and have less need for government assistance because of improved employment opportunities.
The federal government must fund the construction and expansion of additional universities and educational institutions across Alaska.
This would help keep our brightest students in the state while attracting talented students from across the United States and abroad to study in Alaska, settle here long term, and contribute to Alaska’s economy.
Ending the Detention of Refugees and Separation of Families and Abolishing ICE
As a former flight attendant who traveled the world and observed firsthand the conditions in countries facing political instability and extreme poverty, I frequently brought donations of needed items to the people I encountered.
As a retired National Education Association union member and higher education administrator who worked with immigrant students, and on an emotional level as a mother, it breaks my heart to see people seeking refugee status jailed and children ripped away from their parents.
My late mother, herself the daughter of immigrant parents, spent her final years in Mexico and had a great love for both countries.
The United States must do better in meeting its international treaty obligations under the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees.
I support noncustodial family housing in the community for people with pending asylum claims in the United States, rather than detention.
If done correctly, families can live together in the community while complying with the legal process associated with a refugee claim. Due process must also be defended by providing access to lawyers for all refugee claimants.
Donald Trump has made many poor decisions, and his handling of immigration is another example of a lack of competence and leadership.
We must create a system in which asylum claims are processed fairly and uniformly at designated ports of entry. This can help end the power of human-trafficking organizations that victimize migrants and cause people to die while making dangerous journeys.
It is possible to protect national security and respect human rights at the same time by creating an equitable immigration system that Americans can support.
Trump’s policies have failed to meet either objective. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been found to violate the civil rights of immigrants and must be abolished.
We must restore our reputation as a global leader on human rights and as a safe haven for those fleeing oppression.
A Smart-on-Crime Approach with Harm Reduction
Our society requires a system of law and order based on fair, equitable, and accountable policing. That system must respect everyone regardless of race, economic background, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other aspect of who they are.
American policing remains overwhelmingly shaped by a white, heterosexual, cisgender, and macho male professional culture. This must change, and policing must move toward a model that incorporates social work, psychology, crisis intervention, and community problem-solving.
Women, LGBT people, and racial and ethnic minorities must be actively recruited as police officers so police departments reflect the diverse communities they are entrusted to serve and protect.
If it takes a village to raise a child, one could perhaps say it takes the Village People to keep order in society.
We need to embrace diversity to improve policing and build respect for the law across the mosaic of communities and individuals that comprise the United States of America.
Police officers must be held to a higher standard as role models because they act as agents of the government. They must be accountable when they fail to meet the expectations of excellence and integrity in public service.
Civilian oversight boards with meaningful participation from civil-rights organizations such as the NAACP and ACLU can help make this accountability a reality.
We must reform our criminal justice system so prisons are reserved for those who truly cannot be rehabilitated within the community.
We must move away from a system that simply warehouses people and frequently results in individuals leaving prison in worse condition than when they entered.
Instead, we need an intensive therapeutic model in which each day spent in custody is used to help transform offenders into productive, law-abiding members of society. Norway has demonstrated success with this type of model.
The punishment of prison must be the loss of freedom itself, not additional violence, abuse, or torture that produces further mental health problems and aggression after release.
For-profit private prisons must be abolished.
It is illogical and contrary to American values of equality and freedom to maintain a society in which corporate executives and Wall Street figures face little meaningful punishment for stealing millions, while working-class people, particularly people of color affected by systemic racism, can spend years behind bars for comparatively minor offenses.
Three-strikes laws have resulted in mentally ill and intellectually impaired people being sentenced to decades of incarceration for offenses that might otherwise justify sentences measured in weeks or months.
Mandatory minimum sentences are ineffective and costly. Judges must be allowed to administer individual justice in individual cases and make the best use of the limited resources of our justice system.
Our present criminal justice system too often provides the best justice money can buy. Wealthy defendants can afford skilled private attorneys, while poor defendants are pushed into plea agreements by overworked public defenders, even when they may be innocent.
Justice must be equal for all.
Many people become involved with the criminal justice system because of untreated mental illness and substance addiction.
Treating addiction primarily as a criminal offense conflicts with modern medical science, which recognizes addiction as an illness requiring medical intervention.
The misguided War on Drugs has created a black market in which people with addictions may commit theft to fund their drug use, keeping violent cartels in business and harming people throughout the community.
The capitalist system operates on supply and demand. Despite decades of prohibition, demand for illegal drugs has produced a steady supply of people seeking to profit from their sale.
Because of the criminal penalties associated with illegal drug distribution, black-market prices remain high and cartels use frightening levels of violence to control an enormously profitable underground market.
Alcoholism destroys lives, but because alcohol is a legal product, people addicted to alcohol generally do not need to steal to purchase it and do not face the same level of stigma when seeking recovery services.
Countries such as Portugal have moved away from criminalizing addiction and toward a health care model that has produced better results.
With Medicare for All, police officers can become a gateway to treatment services for people struggling with mental illness or addiction.
Physicians should be given the ability to manage patients through controlled medical-maintenance programs with recovery as the ultimate goal. This can weaken cartels and ruthless dealers while helping people move toward sober and productive lives.
Although I would prefer that people not abuse dangerous drugs such as opioids, scientific evidence shows that harm-reduction programs can reduce overdoses and slow the spread of blood-borne illnesses such as HIV and hepatitis.
These illnesses create risks throughout society, particularly for law-enforcement officers and health care professionals.
Through harm reduction, mental health care, community policing, restorative justice, and improved economic opportunities for disadvantaged communities, we can address the root causes of crime rather than simply attempting to clean up the consequences afterward.
Most people who enter prison will eventually return to the community. Society must do everything reasonably possible to ensure that, when that day comes, they are prepared to live as productive and law-abiding citizens.
Having personally been a victim of violent crime, I have no sympathy for those who harm others. However, I recognize that we must be smart on crime to create safer communities for everyone.
We cannot simply arrest our way out of the serious problems facing society. We need a more intelligent approach guided by science, mental health professionals, accountability, and evidence.
A Foreign Policy of Military Neutrality and Privacy Rights at Home
Some of my greatest personal heroes are the Founding Fathers and World War II veterans whom I have known and considered dear, close personal friends.
World War II veterans will always be the greatest generation, and I have broken down in tears at Arlington National Cemetery during our final goodbyes.
The Founding Fathers of the United States warned against becoming involved in foreign entanglements. For many years, this wisdom protected America from falling victim to the endless and bloody conflicts that historically plagued Europe and other parts of the world.
Switzerland has demonstrated that, even in modern times, a foreign policy of military neutrality and a domestic security policy that respects the privacy rights of citizens can be a successful model for a strong country that maintains security, a high standard of living, and international respect.
Our soldiers are fellow Americans who have devoted themselves to serving our nation. As policymakers, we must humbly ensure that those who enlist to defend our country are placed in harm’s way only when absolutely necessary.
Participation in unnecessary foreign conflicts has led to the inexcusable deaths and disabilities of countless patriotic Americans who enlisted in our armed forces while trusting elected officials to make responsible decisions.
Sadly, special interests have too often abused this trust.
As U.S. Senator for Alaska, I will work to ensure that we maintain a strong defense for America while respecting the civil liberties of United States citizens.
If we act responsibly on the world stage, avoid unnecessary foreign conflicts, and focus on diplomatic and trade relations, our military can concentrate on defending America.
During peacetime, military resources can also support public-service projects and domestic disaster relief while our forces remain trained and equipped to repel any attempted attack by a hostile foreign power.
American military bases overseas cost taxpayers enormous sums of money while often failing to serve the immediate needs of our citizens.
The Orwellian surveillance state that has turned inward to monitor the private communications of law-abiding and patriotic Americans is contrary to the United States Constitution, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.
American citizens must be able to communicate and travel privately without being subjected to indiscriminate surveillance or unnecessary physical intrusions at airports.
These freedoms are central to the way of life that generations of heroic patriots fought and died to protect.
The intrusions into the private lives of Americans that have been justified in the name of security resemble the same kinds of oppressive acts that led the Founding Fathers to rebel against the King of England and enact the Constitution.
Military neutrality abroad, combined with a strong national defense, civil liberties, and protected privacy rights at home, can help create the America of personal freedom that the Constitution envisioned and that the world can again admire.
Instead of wasting the hard-earned taxpayer dollars of our citizens on counterproductive wars, we can invest that money in education, health care, infrastructure, and other priorities that raise our standard of living.
This approach will honor the legacy of all those who fought for our freedoms while helping future generations avoid the lasting horrors of war.
Supporting the Rights of Women and LGBT People
Women and LGBT people have long faced discrimination, unequal pay, and harassment.
This is 2026, and it is unacceptable that these issues have not been fully addressed at the national level in the United States.
President Donald Trump has sought to roll back the rights of women and LGBT people and has contributed to the normalization of sexual misconduct.
We must enact constitutional amendments and federal laws that end discrimination and inequality based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and HIV/AIDS status.
The United States must immediately ratify the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
Our foreign policy must require equality for women and LGBT people as a condition of receiving foreign aid from the United States.
We must expand access to confidential HIV/AIDS testing.
Women in the workplace must have equal opportunities based on ability and achievement. We must break the systems of patriarchy that continue to interfere with equal treatment.
Women’s reproductive health care services, including access to contraception and abortion, must be protected, expanded, and covered through a single-payer health care program such as Medicare for All.
Sexual harassment must be treated as a serious act of misconduct in the workplace.
Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people, as well as Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian people with Two-Spirit identities, must no longer face discrimination.
Through access to culturally competent health care and preventive options such as PrEP, we can work to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic in America.
HIV/AIDS has disproportionately affected the LGBT community, women of color, and people living in poverty. Preventing new infections will save lives and reduce health care costs.
Transgender people must be able to use the restroom that corresponds with their gender identity and receive full health care coverage through Medicare for All, including all medically necessary treatments without discrimination.
Whether someone is working, securing housing, attending school, or otherwise living life in America, being LGBT must never be grounds for discrimination.
LGBT students must have their rights protected and must be supported for who they are in both K-12 and higher education environments across the country.
Anti-LGBT bullying and sexual harassment must be treated as serious violations of school rules under federal law, with clear reporting and accountability requirements.
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Carol Hafner for Congress 