Cenk Uygur's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
On The Ballot: Campaign Suspended, Democratic for President
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Issue Positions
For Presidential and Congressional candidates who refuse to provide voters with their positions, Vote Smart has researched their public records to determine their likely responses. These issue positions are from 2024.
- "If youâre a woman and youâre still voting for Republicans after Roe got overturned, you deserve your fate. Youâre literally voting to let the government control your body instead of yourself. Then you canât complain when you donât have rights you gave away. #RoeVWade" (x.com)
- "Itâs been a week since Roe was overturned. Democrats have still done nothing. And they plan to continue to do absolutely nothing. Democratic leadership are the weakest people in the world." (x.com)
- "Affordable Health Insurance â Public Option (68% of Americans support)." (cenkforamerica.com)
- "This is what class warfare looks like. The wealthy use their bought politicians to extract as much wealth as possible and never pay their fair share. Serving the rich is the whole point of the Republican Party." (x.com)
- "This is what class warfare looks like. The wealthy use their bought politicians to extract as much wealth as possible and never pay their fair share. Serving the rich is the whole point of the Republican Party." (x.com)
- "Yes, we want you to sell more stock, you greedy prick. Pay your fucking taxes like the rest of us. And have the decency to not brag about how you steal from the rest of us by not paying your fair share. You're the kind of person that makes people despise the rich." (x.com)
- "Cenk does not take corporate PAC money and doesn't work for wealthy donors. His money is from the average American and he works for the average American." (twitter.com)
- "Ending corruption in politics is one of the things that I am most passionate about. The way to do that is to keep pointing out that privately financed elections lead to politicians working for private interests." (cenkforamerica.com)
- "Fight Corruption - End Private Financing of Elections (80% of Americans think donors have too much influence in Congress)." (cenkforamerica.com)
- Ballotpedia "Police shootings must be investigated by federal prosecutors, not local prosecutors who have to work with the same police departments everyday and might be affected by their previous relationships with them. The job of law enforcement is to serve and protect everyone in the community, not just the powerful." (ballotpedia.org)
- Ballotpedia "We also have to improve police training so that they use lethal force only as an option of last resort, not if they feel any sense of personal danger. We give police guns and badges - and that comes with a heavy responsibility. It's a risky and deeply courageous job if you do it right. If you shoot at the slightest threat, then it is not at all risky and winds up killing far too many civilians, especially people of color." (ballotpedia.org)
- "Are people pretending that $105 billion request for more defense spending is not insane? This is not primarily going to Ukraine, Israel or Taiwan. It's primarily going into the pockets of defense contractors and the politicians they fund. My answer is - no way, not close." (twitter.com)
- "No, all of our money, a giant, unbelievable record breaking amount going to defense when we never even do defense. All we do is offense. All we do is start aggressive wars." (www.youtube.com)
- Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
- Ballotpedia "You know how you address homelessness? You build homes. We know this works because Utah actually tried it and decreased homelessness by 91%! They built government-subsidized housing so that everyone could have safety and shelter - and it worked. We can do the same, but we must make sure your money doesnât get diverted to real estate interest who donated to local politicians." (ballotpedia.org)
- "During inflation, the president was supposed to come out and at least appear to be fighting it. And actually fighting to make sure that your wages rose to match inflation. Joe Biden did none of those things and then he demanded that everyone acknowledge how great the economy is." (twitter.com)
- "Inflation has far more to do with supply chain issues than it does with "overspending" by the Biden administration, especially when they've only implemented one bill. Corporate media anchors are a joke. They know nothing about the news and are tools for corporate propaganda." (x.com)
- "I believe that every right-winger who is critical of student debt forgiveness today has had a much larger debt forgiven in their life (and thought that was a normal part of their entitlement). Every one of them." (x.com)
- "The best is Trump supporters saying that student debt shouldn't be forgiven. That those students have a moral obligation to pay their debts! Trump hasn't paid back BILLIONS in debts! How could they not see the galaxy-sized irony? They're amazing." (x.com)
- Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
- "By trying to get you higher wages, by getting you guaranteed healthcare, by protecting you from pandemic, by getting you great jobs in renewable energy, by ending crony capitalism & ending wars. But if you want to keep punching yourself in the face, I do believe in freedom." (twitter.com)
- Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
- Rated 0% by National Rifle Association (NRA) (None)
- "Universal Background Checks (89% of Americans support)." (cenkforamerica.com)
- Ballotpedia "97% of Americans want federal background checks. Yet we don't have them! Why? If we had a functioning democracy, this would pass immediately. The NRA has bought off Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, Steve Knight and the entirety of the Republican Party. Our kids get shot because of these corrupt politicians!" (ballotpedia.org)
- "Affordable Health Insurance â Public Option (68% of Americans support)." (cenkforamerica.com)
- Ballotpedia "The only candidate in this race who is in favor of Medicare for All." According to his campaign website, "Medicare for All will save lives, and I will always fight for what's best for the people." (ballotpedia.org)
- "Time Off for Parents - Paid Family Leave (84% of Americans support)." (cenkforamerica.com)
- "Allow Medicare to Negotiate Drug Prices (83% of Americans support)." (cenkforamerica.com)
- "We Don't Have an Open Border' but 'It Is Out of Hand'' (www.youtube.com)
- "The effort to impeach Homeland Security Chief Mayorkas is a joke. If the logic is it's a high crime and misdemeanor to block policies that would make it harder to cross the border, all of the Republicans just did that by voting down their own bill on the border!" (twitter.com)
- Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
- "Mike Johnson says he's going to kill border deal but pass $17 billion in military assitance for Israel to kill more innocent Palestinians. What happened, I thought MAGA said they were anti-war? It looks like you guys love war and wasting our money on countries that don't need it." (twitter.com)
- "Israel has universal healthcare and paid family leave. We don't. Why don't they send us $14 billion?" (twitter.com)
- "No, all of our money, a giant, unbelievable record breaking amount going to defense when we never even do defense. All we do is offense. All we do is start aggressive wars." (www.youtube.com)
- "Israel has now killed TEN TIMES as many children in Gaza as Russia has in Ukraine. And the people in power say that we shouldnât believe our lying eyes. You have no credibility left!" (twitter.com)
- "Are people pretending that $105 billion request for more defense spending is not insane? This is not primarily going to Ukraine, Israel or Taiwan. It's primarily going into the pockets of defense contractors and the politicians they fund. My answer is - no way, not close." (twitter.com)
This candidate has responded to a Political Courage Test in a previous election. As a continued effort to provide the American public with factual information on candidates running for public office, these archived responses are made available here.
| Pro-choice | Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| I am pro-choice. I don't think that anyone should tell women what they can and can't do with their bodies. We must expand abortion access and protect women's reproductive rights. | |||
| Yes | In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket? | ||
| Yes | Do you support expanding federal funding to support entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare? | ||
| Yes, I support expanding Social Security and Medicare. I believe we should provide Medicare for All, since it is the only way to guarantee truly universal healthcare to all-- with no co-pays, deductibles, premiums, or co-pays. | |||
| Yes | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| I believe we need publicly-funded elections. Everyone who wants to run for office should have a fair shot. And corporations, PACs, lobbyists, and other entities should not be allowed to influence elected officials through campaign contributions. Anyone who works for a corporation or is a union member can participate as an individual, but corporations are not people. | |||
| No | Do you support increasing defense spending? | ||
| I think we need to be smart about how we protect the country and eliminate any waste in the defense budget. We put so much money into the defense budget but we don't provide veterans or other Americans with quality healthcare. We can both protect the country and reroute some of our current defense spending to education, housing, and healthcare. | |||
| Yes | Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| No | Do you support lowering corporate taxes as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| Corporations need to pay their fair share. Amazon only paid 1.2% income tax last years on their billions of profit. That's way lower than the average American. We should promote economic growth through providing healthcare and quality education to every American so that everyone can contribute. | |||
| Yes | Do you support government funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, geo-thermal)? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| Global warming is an existential crisis, and all governments--local, state, and federal-- must take aggressive actions to cut emissions as quickly as possible. The federal government should regulate emissions to prevent increased warming or we will continue to see increasingly more destructive extreme weather events, flooding in our coastal cities, and millions of people forced out of their homes. | |||
| Yes | Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| Yes. We must pass common sense gun control to save people's lives. 97% of Americans want federal background checks, yet we don't have them because Republicans have been bribed by the NRA. We must close the gun show loophole, pass red flag laws, and ban assault weapons. | |||
| No | Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")? | ||
| No. We should not repeal Obamacare, we should expand it into a single payer system where everyone is covered and is not prevented from using their healthcare by high co-pays and deductibles. Healthcare is a human right. | |||
| No | Do you support the construction of a wall along the Mexican border? | ||
| No | Do you support requiring immigrants who are unlawfully present to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship? | ||
| We shouldn't punish hard work, we should reward it. Tons of hard-working immigrants come to America for a better life for their families; we should not separate families by forcing people to leave and then come back. We should create a pathway to citizenship and we must protect DACA recipients, too. | |||
| No | Should the United States use military force to prevent governments hostile to the U.S. from possessing a weapon of mass destruction (for example: nuclear, biological, chemical)? | ||
| Yes | Do you support reducing military intervention in Middle East conflicts? | ||
| We have been fighting in endless wars for decades-- and for what? Thousands of American lives have been lost, and millions of lives in the Middle East have been lost too. The product of these wars is more destabilization which makes us and the Middle East less safe. I support diplomacy and peace over intervention and destabilization. | |||
| My top priority is to get money out of politics and to fight for publicly-funded elections. Our government has been purchased by corporations through big dollar contributions to politicians in both parties, and it is the issue that underlies all other issues. We can't get universal healthcare until politicians stop taking money from insurance and pharmaceutical companies. Securing Medicare for All is my second priority. 45,000 people a year die because they don't have healthcare and many more go bankrupt trying to pay off their medical bills. This is a barbaric system, and I will fight to end it. |
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