Laura Dunn is an award-winning civil rights attorney and the only middle-class candidate running for New York’s 12th Congressional District. She has spent her career fighting for the victimized and the marginalized both inside the courtroom and on Capitol Hill. At a moment when voters are demanding accountability as well as results, Dunn is a pragmatic progressive bringing a rare combination of legal expertise, working-class values, and bipartisan advocacy.

Before becoming an attorney, Dunn taught in under-resourced public schools. In New Orleans, she joined her local teacher’s union, and then in Chicago, she helped unionize her public charter school. By serving on the line, she witnessed firsthand how policy decisions shape the daily realities of students and families. As a full-inclusion classroom teacher, she brings an authentic perspective to needed education policy reforms and ongoing educational equity efforts.

Dunn is also an outspoken survivor of campus sexual violence, who transformed her pain into a passion that has reformed education systems nationwide. When starting law school, Dunn spoke out about her experience on National Public Radio and worked with the Obama Administration to develop key Title IX guidance. She then helped pass the 2013 Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Reauthorization, contributing to the drafting of Section 304 of this omnibus legislation. 

For this work, then-Vice President Joe Biden invited her to advise the White House Task Force to Protect Students Against Sexual Assault. Her work has been recognized at the highest levels of government, including on the floor of the U.S. Senate by former Senate Judiciary Committee Chair, Patrick Leahy (D-VT), who Dunn clerked for on Capitol Hill. In this role, she worked on pathways to citizenship, ending human trafficking, appointing judicial nominations, and more. 

After law school, in 2014, Dunn founded the national, award-winning legal nonprofit SurvJustice. She not only continued working on federal and state legislative and policy efforts around campus safety but represented countless survivors across the country in disciplinary hearings to address gender-based violence. She also served in policy roles for both Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden’s presidential campaigns. In 2019, Dunn established a national Title IX law firm, representing survivors and serving as an expert witness in high profile cases, including a lawsuit against Penn State for the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal. 

As one of the nation’s leading civil rights and victim rights attorneys, Dunn has spent the last decade holding powerful institutions accountable and advocating for survivors across the country. As a queer woman of Guatemalan heritage, she part of a new generation of leaders, bringing with her an inherent ability to translate values across political and cultural divides, having grown up a pastor’s daughter in a conservative Chrisian household in a liberal city and in a purple state.

Dunn is running to bring a new era to Congress that is grounded in accountability, fighting for affordability, and ensuring advancement of technology responsibility. As the first female candidate to enter this race, and the only one candidate who is not a millionaire or backed by a billionaire, her only priority is serving the people of NY-12 first. She is unbought, unbossed, and unafraid. Laura Dunn is fearless for the people and going to get the job done in Washington.

As the first female candidate to enter this race, and the only one candidate who is not a millionaire or backed by a billionaire, Dunn's only priority is serving the people of NY-12. Unlike Jack Schlossberg, Dunn has used her law degree for over a decade to defend the victimized and marginalized in court against powerful institutions and perpetrators. She has also successfully lobbied and help draft federal law, served on rulemaking committees, and even advised White House Task Forces to run on her experience, not a family name. Unlike Alex Bores, who has worked for big tech, Dunn has fought to hold them liable for their harms to society and will move to repeal or amend Section 230 of the Communications Act to ensure these companies cannot continue to harm society without accountability. Unlike Lasher, who is taking $5M from multi-millionaire known for his serial sexual harassment, Dunn holds perpetrators and enablers of sexual misconduct accountable as an attorney through campus, criminal, and civil legal systems, and does not associate with questionable donors running a  people powered campaign of largely small dollar donors. Finally, unlike Conway, Dunn has never been a Republican and is running on far more than impeaching Trump. She is running on accountability for the U.S. Supreme Court, by imposing ethical standards, and for Congress, by ending insider trading and imposing term limits. She will ensure a government worthy of public trust.

Given the crowded race in NY-12, the win number for Dunn's campaign is around 35,000. During petitioning, she secured over 3K signatures in under three weeks. People are eager to see a qualified candidate with Democratic party credentials that is running to challenge the establishment and serve the people. Her field plan will target women voters, her own LGBTQ community, and young people living in NY-12 to swing votes for herself as a middle class, people-first candidate.

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As someone who has worked across policy, law, and implementation, I believe we need to be honest about the tension here: we must build faster, but we cannot do it at the expense of community protections, labor standards, or environmental justice.

On NEPA, I support targeted, responsible reform—not rollback. We should streamline timelines, improve coordination between agencies, and invest in capacity so reviews happen efficiently. But NEPA is also one of the few tools communities have to ensure projects are safe, equitable, and environmentally sound. Any reform must preserve meaningful public input and strong environmental protections, especially for communities that have historically been overburdened by pollution.

On procurement, I support smart flexibility with accountability. We should reduce unnecessary delays and modernize processes, but not weaken standards that protect workers, safety, or domestic investment. Buy America policies, for example, are critical to supporting U.S. jobs and supply chains—we should improve implementation, not abandon them.

My approach is simple: build faster, but build right—delivering projects efficiently while protecting workers, communities, and long-term public value.

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Housing is the defining affordability issue in NY-12, and I believe we need a comprehensive, all-of-the-above approach that increases supply while protecting equity and community stability.

I support expanding housing production across the board—including market-rate, affordable, and public housing—because we simply are not building enough to meet demand. That’s why I support increased federal investment, zoning and permitting reform, and aligning transportation and infrastructure funding with pro-housing policies, especially near transit.

At the same time, we must ensure that growth is equitable. I strongly support repealing the Faircloth Amendment so we can build new public housing, and expanding Housing First models and permanent supportive housing to address homelessness with dignity and proven results.

We should also embrace innovation—like modular construction and updated building codes—to lower costs and speed delivery without compromising safety.

But I want to be clear: increasing supply cannot come at the expense of existing communities. We need tenant protections, anti-displacement measures, and a focus on affordability at every level.

My approach is simple: build more, build smarter, and ensure that everyone—regardless of income—has a stable place to call home.

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On parking, we need a balanced approach: curb space is valuable, but we must ensure residents have access to affordable parking permits, and that small businesses and service providers can obtain reasonable licensing for work vehicles.

Transportation in NY-12 has to be about efficiency, affordability, and safety—and right now, we’re falling short on all three.

On transit costs, I support reforms that bring projects in on time and on budget. New York pays far more than peer cities for similar infrastructure, and that’s unacceptable. We need smarter federal requirements, better project management, and accountability for how funds are spent—without cutting corners on safety or labor standards.

I’m also a strong supporter of bus investment and bus rapid transit. Buses move the most people in our city, especially working-class New Yorkers, and we should be prioritizing dedicated lanes and faster, more reliable service.

On safety, automated enforcement—like speed and red-light cameras—is proven to reduce injuries and save lives. We should empower local governments to expand these tools.

On parking, we need a balanced approach: curb space is valuable, but we must ensure residents have access to affordable parking permits, and that small businesses and service providers can obtain reasonable licensing for work vehicles. 

My approach is simple: move people faster, safer, and more affordably—while making smart use of public dollars.

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I support an aggressive clean energy and resilience agenda because climate policy in New York has to be about both speed and fairness.

That means accelerating solar, geothermal, transmission, and resilience investments, while making sure communities see lower costs, safer infrastructure, and cleaner air. I support streamlining permitting where rules are being used to block clean energy unnecessarily, especially for solar and transmission, but I also believe communities deserve transparency, safety, and meaningful input.

On nuclear, I’m open to supporting existing zero-emission capacity and serious investment in next-generation technology, but only with strong safety oversight, labor standards, and public accountability. We cannot cut corners on safety in the name of speed.

I strongly support major federal investments in climate resilience—from coastal protection and stormwater systems to cooling infrastructure—because climate change is already harming New Yorkers, especially in vulnerable communities.

On buyouts, reform is badly needed. Families in high-risk flood zones should not be trapped for years in broken bureaucracy, and renters also need protection and support in any relocation framework.

My approach is to build faster, protect people first, and make sure the clean energy transition works for working families, not just for markets.

My leadership in civil rights policy reform at both the federal and state level aligns with the Abundance agenda because I successfully advocated for systems that actually deliver results at scale.

At the federal level, I helped draft and pass Section 304 of the Violence Against Women Act and later served on the Department of Education’s rulemaking committee to implement those protections nationwide, setting clearer standards for anti-gender violence responses at the systems level. In New York, at the state level, I served on SUNY’s Sexual Violence Prevention Workgroup, which developed the blue print for what became state law through Enough is Enough, establishing statewide standards to prevent and respond to sexual violence on college campuses.

The obstacle to safer campuses was not a lack of awareness—it was fragmentation, bureaucracy, and institutional resistance. Through my work with the White House Task Force to Protect Students Against Sexual Assault, I helped coordinate federal enforcement efforts across agencies of federal law and policy I had helped pass, while also working with universities, state systems, and lawmakers that were often siloed and slow to act. I focused on aligning these systems and creating clear, enforceable frameworks that institutions could implement effectively. Today, we have safer colleges and universities because of my efforts.

The outcome was real, scalable change: statewide and national policies that improved safety, clarified processes, and expanded access to justice for students. I can bring this experience to the Abundance Agenda better than all the other candidate, none of whom have the federal experiences and credentials that I have to serve NY-12 in Congress.

That’s what abundance means to me—removing barriers, aligning systems, and ensuring government actually delivers for people at scale.

If elected, my legislative priorities are rooted in accountability, affordability, and advancement—because NY-12 needs leadership that delivers real results.

First, accountability. I will hold our government to the highest standards. That means pushing for congressional term limits, banning insider trading by elected officials, and advancing Supreme Court ethics reform so no one is above the law. I will also fight to hold any administration accountable when it violates the Constitution or obstructs justice. Government must work for the people—not for personal gain or unchecked power.

Second, affordability. Healthcare, housing, and taxes are crippling the working class while the wealth gap continues to grow. For a nation to be great, it must care for its citizens. I will fight for universal healthcare, simplified and equalized taxes that end gamesmanship favoring the wealthy, and affordable housing access so working families can thrive.

Third, advancement. It’s time for government to protect people—not corporations. Innovation needs guardrails, and protecting our environment is non-negotiable. I will prioritize environmental responsibility, responsible AI regulation, and consumer protections for crypto.

My goal is to restore trust, lower costs, and build a future that works for everyone.