Ace’s Platform

AFFORDABILITY

Making sure West Virginians can afford to live, work, and stay.

Affordability has three interconnected dimensions: a just transition for workers left behind by economic policies, lower prices on food and other key items families need to live, and the infrastructure investments that communities desperately need. To “Affordability in West Virginia means government decisions that don’t make life more expensive for you, an economy that prioritizes investing in rather than looting our people and land and investing in the infrastructure that allows our communities to thrive. Want to dig deeper? Pick an element!

On average, American families have spent over $1,800 extra because of tariffs. Tariffs are taxes on consumers that have raised the prices for everything from ground beef to Christmas toys. Tariffs should be used to level the economic playing field. The administration has used it to settle personal spats with world leaders without rhyme or reason and Riley Moore has been the tariffs’ lead champion in Congress. Congress should exercise authority over tariffs so that people don’t pay more at the grocery stores and small businesses can’t make plans for their inventory. All tariffs should be subject to public comment.
The war in Iran has raised gas prices an extra $72 billion in gas since the start of the war, with each family paying more than $600 extra. This does not count additional diesel costs that have driven up prices for everything else. The Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war, and I will do the job of the member of Congress to ensure the administration is held accountable for war decisions.
West Virginians are too used to our government throwing money at out of state corporations that loot our land and people. That has been Riley Moore’s economic agenda. Giving regular West Virginians high paying jobs that make life affordable means investing in our two great WV assets: land and people.

Ace’s 21st century economic agenda would focus on building community wealth by having the Small Business Administration and other agencies provide grants and low interest loans to entrepreneurs and young people to make investments in West Virginia, including taking abandoned buildings across the state and transforming them into community centers and small businesses. These investments reflect our Appalachian identity and provide support, job training and peer coaching to help our people succeed.

Constituents have been clear in conversations: federal grantmaking have to stop creating a preference for large corporations and agribusiness and start prioritizing small farms and small businesses.
Our tax code has so many loopholes that if you’re a billionaire, you often can get away without paying any taxes. That contributes to the national debt. We need a simpler, more transparent tax system without as many loopholes so that everybody pays their share.
Across America, coal miners and manufacturing workers have been left behind by failed trade policies. Economic transitions have created real pain for real people - especially in Appalachia.

Investors and executives seem to do just fine—the people and communities don’t. We will not abandon those communities or their workers.

For every $1 in wages lost when a factory closes or a mine shuts down, we will advocate to invest $2 back into that community.

Communities—not corporations, not Washington—should decide how this investment is used. Through a local vote, residents can choose how funds are allocated, such as in

Bringing in new businesses

Job training for workers

Roads, broadband, and infrastructure

Because no community should be left behind.
Working-class people should not have to be buried in paperwork to get the benefits they deserve or to be priced out of the things they need to live. We will act across four fronts:

Increase Supply – High options, low prices promise.

Housing: Tax incentives and zoning reform to build more housing so West Virginians can afford to stay in West Virginia

Universal Childcare: Grants to qualified facilities, scaled to performance, and tax breaks for parents to fund their childcare choices

Education: Increase Title I funds for at-risk rural schools; fund community colleges and trade schools and redirect lost funds for vouchers back into public schools

Healthcare: Fund rural hospitals; pursue a single-payer public option

Food: Cut tariffs driving up prices on coffee, beef, OJ, and other groceries; invest in small farms

Energy: Diversify supply through wind, solar, and other sources to drive down heating bills

Dignity Investments – People shouldn’t beg for the right to live.

Reverse Big Beautiful Bill cuts to SNAP and Medicaid

Raise the minimum wage to a living wage

Reduce red tape created by Riley Moore’s advocacy for the Big Beautiful Bill and fund social workers to help people navigate the housing, food, and support they need to live and thrive.

Increase public interest loan forgiveness and student support for public service careers

Eliminate Benefit Cliffs – End cruel and costly government policies.

The moment you get a raise should not be the moment you lose your benefits. We will redesign benefit structures so they reward work, not punish it:

Smooth SNAP, Medicaid, childcare, and housing subsidy offramps as incomes rise

Extend support to middle-class families who sit just above current thresholds

Expand hours and accessibility to service sectors so no family should have to choose between going to work and visiting the DHHR office

Rein in Corporate Power and Waste – Let’s hold corporations accountable for a change.

Hold developers, for-profit schools, for-profit healthcare companies, and for-profit childcare facilities accountable for results and waste

Cut fossil fuel subsidies for companies that have wasted public resources and invest them in Appalachian energy sectors that have been good stewards of public investments.

Hold national corporations in senior care accountable for care quality

West Virginian’s deserve better government benefits systems
Public Education Policy Paper
West Virginia cannot attract new workers, new businesses, or a new generation of families without the foundational infrastructure that makes communities liveable. These are not luxuries — they are government responsibilities we are failing to meet.

Broadband: Universal access as a public utility — the 21st-century road.

Roads and transportation: Maintain and expand the physical arteries of commerce and community.

Education: Modernize school buildings; strengthen educator resources in rural and under-resourced areas.

Healthcare access: Fund rural hospitals and ensure healthcare infrastructure matches community need, not corporate profitability. Pursue a single-payer public option.

Support universal healthcare both in how services are paid for and access to healthcare as hospitals across the state close.

Enforce truck weight limits that prevent road damage and ensure companies fixing roads are held accountable for long-term results rather than short-term band aids.

CARE

Caring for our people. Caring for our land.

In West Virginia, we care about each other. That is our identity and our strength. Government should reflect that — investing in the people who care for our communities and in the land that defines who we are.

A few years ago, the opioid epidemic was front and center in people’s minds across the country. Somehow when the cameras turned off, politicians assumed the pain had as well. It hasn’t and we will focus on taking the fight back to this epidemic that has directly or indirectly affected every person in West Virginia.

Science-Based, Human-Centered Addiction Recovery
Addiction isn’t a moral failing or a decision--it’s disease that grips the human brain and refuses to let go. We must first reclaim funds that our communities used to fight addiction—especially Medicaid—and then invest those funds in programs that are based in evidence, not profit and half-baked whims.

Invest in Addiction Frontline Workers
Loneliness and lack of support are to addiction what gasoline is to fire. We need to fund social workers and resources to help people recovering a sense of community and support.

Accountability for Addiction Perpetrators
Why is it that we incarcerate drug dealers, but the Sacklers and the uber wealthy that made fortunes on people’s pain are still living in their mansions. Appalachia and America never held the perpetrators—people and companies—that drove us to this pit publicly accountability. I will advocate for the public accountability.
Coal companies and coal miners are not the same constituency. My opponent talks about coal. I'll talk about miners. Black lung is at a nearly 50-year high and the 2024 silica rule would cut permissible dust exposure in half and prevent more than 1,000 deaths. Riley Moore sits on the Appropriations Committee that oversees these programs and hasn’t done anything.

I’ll co-sponsor the Support Our Miners Act that enforces the silica rule, raises black lung benefits, ups inspection and more. Miners were critical to providing the country the energy to thrive and deserve our respect, advocacy, and support. I’ll provide it.
Ace will advocate for cutting taxes on Social Security benefits, advocate for senior healthcare, and work to shore up Social Security by ensuring that a billionaire and the middle class worker they hire who contributed to them becoming a billionaire aren’t paying the same amount to shore up this essential safety net.
West Virginia has one of the highest veterans populations in the country. VA employees in the district have shared with me that they have to do more with less.

Our VA systems in Clarksburg and Martinsburg need more support and staffing infusion of social workers and healthcare professionals that can take care of our veterans.
Teachers, nurses, social workers, and police officers are the connective tissue of our communities. We have made them our enemies. It is time to make them our partners and help the people they serve.

Free College for Service Professions

We will eliminate tuition for students who commit to careers as educators, nurses, social workers, or police officers. This is an investment in West Virginia's civic infrastructure — the people who hold communities together.

Full tuition forgiveness for education, nursing, social work, and public safety degrees at public institutions, tied to years of in-state service

Strengthen and expand existing public service loan forgiveness programs and make them easier to access.

Expand AmeriCorps and similar national service pathways as entry points to these careers

Higher Wages and Recognition

Raise wages for teachers, nurses, social workers, and police officers — including competitive pay that reflects the irreplaceable value of their work

Pay professionals in these sectors who earn strong community reviews more and promote the best to leadership

Give nurses time to be with patients — not buried in paperwork on behalf of corporate billing departments

Housing Support for Essential Workers

Housing subsidies and down payment assistance for teachers, nurses, social workers, and police officers who commit to underserved communities

Partner with local governments to develop workforce housing near schools, hospitals, and community service centers

Community Policing and Public Safety

Transfer new ICE money that’s funded lawlessness to community police departments that people trust for real public safety.

Treat our law enforcement officers as partners — not budget items to cut or political props to exploit
Invest in and support small farmers who are regenerating and investing in making the land healthy for future generations.
West Virginia has experienced major floods, tornadoes, and other natural disasters. Riley Moore, Congress, and the administration have cut FEMA funding.

Ace will work to get more funding for FEMA, ensure it’s more efficient in working with people on the ground at the local level, and take away partisan considerations on how people get helped after a natural disaster.
West Virginia is, inch for inch, the most beautiful place in the country. That beauty is not a backdrop — it is an economic asset, a cultural identity, and a birthright. It is under attack, and I will fight to protect it.

Clean and Safe Drinking Water

If you open the tap in communities 30 minutes from my house, you see orange water. This is a statewide crisis and a government failure. I will treat it as one.

Dedicated federal investment in replacing failing water infrastructure across West Virginia

Hold polluters accountable through enforcement and restoration funding

Ensure rural and low-income communities have equal access to clean water — not just communities that can afford to fight for it

State and National Parks and Public Lands

Invest in state and national park infrastructure — trails, facilities, and visitor access — as economic development, not just conservation

Fight against privatization and corporate exploitation of public lands

Invest in the outdoor tourism economy as a pillar of long-term economic health

Clean Air and Environmental Health

Hold out-of-state polluters accountable — West Virginia's air and water should not be a dumping ground for out-of-state companies

Strengthen environmental health monitoring in communities with documented exposure histories

Want to know why Ace Jumped into the Water?

EMPOWERMENT

Montani Semper Liberi.
Mountaineers are always free.

Empowerment means that power flows to the people — not to corporations, not to the wealthy, not to unaccountable executives. Five dimensions define this agenda: community control, worker power, human rights, transparent government, and a democracy where every vote counts.

Modern technologies are about to endanger people’s 4th Amendment rights against a police state, take people’s property and cut up long held farmlands, dirty our water, and take local voice away from voters. Ace will be a voice against these changes and introduce legislation to stop them.

Nobody asked ratepayers before load growth got socialized onto their bills. Nobody asked landowners before a transmission corridor got surveyed across their property. Nobody asked residents before their license plates started getting logged. Riley Moore voted for a bill that would ban state and local governments from regulating AI for ten years. Ace will be a voice against these changes and introduce legislation to stop them.

Introduce legislation to ensure the building of data centers and transmission lines are preceded with community referendums.

Ban flock cameras and AI facilitated surveillance by public officials.

Hold companies accountable for damages to land, property values, and electric bills.
I will be the most accessible, transparent, and accountable representative this district has ever had.

Ban paid lobbying after leaving elected office — the revolving door between government and corporate influence peddling must stop

Mandate that all elected officials divest any financial interests that relate to their legislative responsibilities

Have full transparency in campaign fundraising — including disclosure of super PAC donors — and advocacy for ending Citizens United protections that give people speech powers to corporations.

Commit to 20+ town halls per year across the district — not occasional fundraisers, but genuine open accountability sessions

No public funds used for self-promotional mailers or political communications — a practice that has gone unchallenged for too long

Ace’s Moral Monday
For too long, decisions about our communities have been made without the people who live in them. It’s time to put power back where it belongs — in the hands of constituents.

Ensure meaningful community input in local and federal decision-making — not just symbolic hearings, but real influence over policies that shape daily life

Expand participatory budgeting and community-led planning so residents have a direct say in how public funds are spent

Increase transparency and accountability — constituents deserve clear, accessible information and honest engagement from their representatives

Protect and elevate the voices of historically underrepresented communities, ensuring everyone has a seat at the table in shaping our shared future"
For decades, corporations have systematically dismantled the tools workers have to negotiate fair wages and safe conditions. We will rebuild those tools.

End right-to-work laws that undermine collective bargaining

Strengthen and simplify the right to organize — workers should be able to form a union without fear of retaliation or a multi-year legal battle

Strengthen NLRB enforcement and increase penalties for employers who illegally interfere with organizing

Guarantee protections for workers who speak out about unsafe conditions — particularly in extraction, agriculture, and healthcare
We must ask how a society built on individual freedom gave more human freedom to a corporation than those entrusted to We the People. Once we answer that question, let’s do something about it!

Women’s Right

Protect the right to make personal healthcare decisions

Address the disproportionate economic and caregiving burdens women carry

Expand access to education, job training, and higher-paying careers

Children’s Rights

Every child deserves safety, stability, and a real chance to succeed

Expand access to early childhood education, healthcare, and nutrition

Strengthen protections against abuse and neglect

Veterans’ Rights

Ensure timely access to high-quality healthcare, including mental health and addiction services

Support job training, housing stability, and transition to civilian employment

Reduce bureaucratic barriers within the VA system

Disability Rights

Make West Virginia fully accessible — physically, economically, and socially

Expand employment opportunities and enforce fair wage protections

Simplify access to services so people can live independently with dignity

LGBTQ+ Rights

Protect individuals from discrimination in employment, housing, healthcare, and education

Ensure every West Virginian can live safely and openly in their community

Promote a culture of respect rooted in basic fairness

Gun Owners’ Rights

Respect the rights of responsible gun owners

Protect lawful ownership while promoting responsible use and community safety

Focus enforcement on illegal activity, not law-abiding citizens

Human Rights

Relaunch and revamp foreign aid cuts by Elon Musk that killed millions of people and ceded America’s international leadership to countries like China.

Support policies that promote stability, economic opportunity, and human rights worldwide.

Lead with values, partnership, and accountability that treat every human being as if they are created in the image of God and have infinite worth.

Women's Right
With gerrymandered districts, elected officials have more choice in picking their voters than voters have in picking their officials. That is not democracy. We will fix it.

Automatic voter registration for all eligible citizens — participation should be the default, not the obstacle

Restore and expand voting rights for all eligible citizens, including those formerly incarcerated who have paid their debt to society

Ranked-choice voting — giving voters more choices and ensuring winners have genuine majority support

Non-partisan redistricting — maps drawn to reflect communities, not to entrench incumbents
Our district has lost billions of dollars because Congress has forfeited important responsibilities like declaring war, holding the powerful accountable for waste, the power of the purse as Elon Musk’s DOGE initiative cut grants and agencies Congress had authorized. Without the People’s House being the people’s house, we are closer today to the type of concentrated power our founders warned against. I’ll reassert Congress’s role as an independent branch of government.

" The American Dream Was Never a Solo Act. I didn't get here alone. Neither did you. Let's rise together
- not because it's easy, but because that's who West Virginians are. "

~ Ace Parsi