A congressional candidate in the Bay Area's deeply blue 12th District has taken aim at the Democratic Party, asserting that it 'needs to wake up' and advocating for a complete restructuring of the government. With the June 2 primary approaching, Jamie Joyce described President Donald Trump's second term as an 'unrelenting assault' on the system of checks and balances, criticizing Democrats for their lack of action against the Republican takeover.
'Democrats need to wake up,' Joyce told the East Bay Times. 'There are powerful, relentless incentives and interests who want to pillage this ship while it's sinking.'
The candidate, who is running against Lateefah Simon, placed blame on the Left for permitting the 'expansion of the surveillance state by anti-democratic tech titans' and for failing to prosecute what she termed 'the Epstein class'—a reference to individuals connected to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. Joyce called for a fundamental restructuring of government to 'tip the balance of power back in favor of the people.'
The Modernizing American Democracy Act
Central to Joyce's campaign is the Modernizing American Democracy (MAD) Act, a comprehensive bill focused on government reform and accountability. 'Each one of these precincts within District 12 have their own individual needs,' she explained. 'The MAD Act will be extremely helpful—in the long term, not just this next election cycle—dealing with the fact that Alameda is sinking, that crime may be bleeding over from Oakland into San Leandro, all these local issues.'
The 650-plus page bill aims to curb 'the surveillance state' by prohibiting the creation and purchase of individuals' 'psychological profiles,' alongside protecting voter rights, preventing harmful AI practices, narrowing the Insurrection Act, exposing 'Dark Money' spending, reforming ICE, and investigating the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
Challenging Tech and Executive Overreach
'Unchecked technology, concentrated wealth and executive overreach have tilted the scales...and AI is about to tip them further unless we do something,' states the website dedicated to the act. 'If you care about affordable housing, climate change or any issue that requires a functioning government to solve, none of it gets done while the machinery of government itself is controlled by greedy and power hungry puppets and their masters.'
The website emphasizes that the bill is 'not born out of hostility toward social media, AI or technology,' noting Joyce's own background in the AI field. 'It was born out of love for people, for freedom, for rights, and for privacy…but let's be honest: ultimately this comes down to the people [versus] the predators.'
Joyce's campaign asserts that the Executive Branch 'is corrupt and overpowered,' and calls for action against foreign exploitation, crimes against children, and AI. 'Because everything we care about, like affordable housing, a sustainable environment, clean food, fair taxes and ending genocide/war is downstream of the will of the criminal Epstein class who are selling our democracy for parts—and are getting away with it,' her campaign site states.
A Disappointed Voter
Joyce, if elected, says she refuses to let a 'blue wave' become 'business as usual,' acknowledging that she herself has been a disappointed voter 'too many times.' Her message echoes sentiments expressed by Representative Ro Khanna (D-Fremont), who told the Los Angeles Times in November 2025: 'When you take a step back, you have a country where an elite governing class has gotten away with impunity and shafted the working class in this country, shafted factory towns, shafted rural communities...' Khanna added that the release of the Epstein files is about 'saying, we reject the Epstein class governing America today,' and argued that exposing 'rich and powerful people who abuse the system' would rebuild trust with the American people.
The Daily Mail reached out to Jamie Joyce's campaign for comment.
