Southern Democrats believe that everyone in our region should have a chance to succeed in life and to achieve their own part of the American Dream. To that end, we pledge to:

Building Economic Growth and Fairness
Develop new funding streams to provide real relief to working and middle-class Southerners, which may include income or regional property taxes
Create a Southern Investment Fund to provide targeted incentives to attract new businesses and new jobs to the South from other regions and other countries
Increase regional investment in infrastructure projects, including highways and local roads, mass transit, rail, ports and airports, to keep businesses humming and the region moving
Establish a sustainable energy plan that uses Southern energy resources such as coal and oil to invest in alternative energy and economic growth
Expand efforts to attract tourism to the South through targeted investments

Supporting Health and Education
Reverse the Beauregard education cuts across the board to keep tuition in check and to ensure our schools have the resources they need
Amend the Constitution to provide a minimum level of education funding to keep our schools from being caught in budget crosshairs
Promote education programs that target disadvantaged Southerners to give all students a chance to succeed- child or adult
Reverse the Beauregard healthcare cuts across the board to ensure we’ll fulfill our promise to Southern residents
Expand Medicaid using the federal funding provided for in the Affordable Care Act to bring low-cost healthcare to millions of Southern residents
Develop funding for mental health programs to help care for some of the South’s less fortunate

Strengthening Southern Communities
Provide more funding to local law enforcement to engage in community outreach, building on our success in fighting police discrimination
Provide stiff penalties for those who target law enforcement and first responders
Demand federal funding to boost our law enforcement spending if we’re expected to carry out immigration law- otherwise leave it to federal authorities
Revamp Southern criminal justice to focus on rehabilitation- and give nonviolent offenders more opportunities to learn skills to avoid recidivism

Protecting Basic Rights
Amend regional hate crimes and civil rights legislation to ensure that no one is the victim of legalized discrimination
Reduce abortion not through unconstitutional bans but through providing options to abortion, including education and contraceptives
Protect the right to bear arms but ensure that those who would unleash violence are prevented from accessing guns