Last week’s announcement that Netflix plans to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery for over $70 billion, and Paramount launching a hostile counter-takeover, should face aggressive scrutiny. If approved, either merger will create a corporate giant with massive control over what Americans watch, what they pay, and, in some cases, which news reaches their homes. Entertainment makes headlines, but Netflix, Paramount, and Warner aren’t the only ones using well-connected lobbyists to sweet talk regulators. 

The same monopoly playbook is being deployed across every essential part of our economy. And in rural America, it means something more destructive: abandonment when we are no longer profitable enough. 

I’m running for Congress in New York’s 21st District to take a sledgehammer to the monopolies that keep selling working families out just so Wall Street keeps getting richer. When everything costs more, we have less freedom. Paychecks that used to cover the basics now fall short, which leaves families to make impossible choices: heat our homes or buy groceries, fill our prescriptions or fix the car. That isn’t the result of a free market; it’s the result of corporate power without accountability.

Look no further than healthcare. UnitedHealth Group dominates health insurance, hospital systems, physician practices, and pharmacy benefits, controlling nearly every point where we pay for care. When one corporation has that much power, it sets the price and we have no other options. At the same time, private equity firms buy up rural hospitals, load them with debt, and shut them down when returns don’t satisfy. Here in NY-21, doctors have warned about an impending 114-mile medical desert as a result of our broken health care system. That’s a question of life and death, and it’s why I’ll go to Congress and use its anti-monopoly powers to break up healthcare mergers that price us out of staying alive. 

Or look at your utility bill. In much of rural New York, families have no real choice of energy provider. Monopoly utilities like National Grid keep raising rates while infrastructure fails, while executives collect million-dollar bonuses. During long North Country winters, we can’t shop around energy options – we just end up paying more. That’s not freedom. Congress should take on price gouging with its teeth, break up exclusive service territories, and ban utility company executives from receiving bonuses when rates rise faster than inflation. Where monopoly utilities fail, we need public utilities, municipal providers, and rural co-ops that answer to customers instead of shareholders. 

Then there’s our food. Just four companies control nearly all meat processing in the United States: Tyson, JBS, Cargill, and National Beef. They set the prices our farmers receive and the prices North Country families pay at checkout. Farmers are locked into one-sided contracts while grocery prices soar and Big Agriculture posts record profits. Instead of spending billions in tax dollars to patch over the damage caused by consolidation, Congress should use fair trade agreements to open markets where they can compete.

Congress lets all this happen because the same corporations driving up your costs are funding their campaigns. For example, one of the top contributors to Elise Stefanik’s campaign is Apollo Global Management, one of the largest private equity firms. They use the money they squeeze out of working families to buy political influence that protects their control. That’s why I refuse corporate PAC money. You can't fight monopolies while taking their checks. 

As a White House trade official, I served our country to protect American workers and farmers against a rigged economy. I’ve seen firsthand how corporate consolidation hollows out local economies like ours.

When companies have to compete for your business, they lower prices to win you over. Right now, they don't have to compete, and they jack up prices because you have nowhere else to go.

Congress has the tools to actually make life affordable. Enforce the Packers and Stockyards Act from 1921 to rein in the meatpacking giants and rebuild regional supply chains where farmers get fair prices. Block further healthcare mergers that restrict access to lifesaving care. Break up exclusive utility territories. The laws exist, but Congress just needs the courage to use them.

I’m running to be that courage. We deserve an economy where hard work pays off, and the basics are affordable. Where competition is real, costs are fair, and families have the freedom to build a life and plan for the future. That’s worth fighting for, and it's time someone did.