Like any American, I have strong views on a variety of issues. My opinions have been shaped by my own experiences all over our country and the world.
Regardless of where I stand on a given issue, I am committed to working together with people all over the political spectrum to find creative, compassionate, and innovative policy solutions that will accomplish the most good for the most people.
I believe one of the greatest threats facing our country today is our inability to disagree with each other productively. Too often, we have taken to demonizing those who disagree with us and treating them with contempt. History teaches us that when we begin to demonize and dehumanize one another it often leads to hatred, violence, and civil instability.
Missouri is an incredibly diverse state. We come from different backgrounds and have a wide variety of opinions. When our system is working correctly, our diversity is one of our greatest strengths. We’re able to have spirited debates about issues, test a variety of approaches and solutions, and stick with the ones that work.
Most of our current elected politicians and party bosses have abandoned this strength. Instead of seeking to unify us and remind us of our common interests and goals, they seek to tear us apart by purposefully employing extremist rhetoric. They use hatred and anger as tools to scare us into voting party lines thereby achieving their desired political aims. This results in a lack of movement in Congress on key issues that Americans need solved.
We need leaders who reject these “us against them” tactics and instead seek to unite us to work together to tackle our country’s complex problems. That is why more American voters now identify as independents than as members of either major party. The path to real substantive change is electing capable, qualified, independent candidates. Independent politicians inherently have more voting power and bring people together to have a large enough coalition to drive solutions for the people they represent.
I believe our Constitution and the institutions it created are critical to continued peace and prosperity in our country. Our leaders have a duty to defend these institutions and to not undermine them for the sake of short-term political gains. This means accepting election results, supporting the peaceful transfer of power, and accepting court decisions without attacking the integrity of the court that issued them—whether it’s a Manhattan district court or the Supreme Court of the United States.
The privilege of bringing children into this world is sacred and special. I have six children. I am opposed to unlimited, on-demand abortion, and I’m also opposed to complete abortion bans. I believe a 15-week ban with exceptions for health emergencies and rape/incest is a responsible, broadly-supported approach to this deeply personal and morally charged issue.
I have listened to and understand the feelings of many good people who think my position is too strict or perhaps not strict enough. I believe it is counterproductive when we demonize those who stand on the other side of the abortion debate; i.e., we cannot and should not paint pro-abortion advocates as murderers, nor should we paint anti-abortion advocates as control-hungry woman-haters.
While I believe a 15-week ban is the best compromise solution, I also believe policy-making on this emotional and divisive issue should be done at the state level by duly-elected state legislators who listen carefully to women and healthcare providers, or decided by the voters themselves through the initiative process. Abortion policies should match the values of a given state’s voters, not be forced on them by the federal government or the courts.
I am a gun owner. I believe the right to bear arms is an important constitutional right that protects citizens in more ways than one. However, we should be open to considering policy changes that will keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill or criminally inclined while still preserving the rights of healthy, law-abiding citizens to own and use firearms.
We should also be willing to critically examine other aspects of our society that may be contributing to a culture of violence, such as violent video games, music, TV shows, and movies.
I believe two key principles should govern our immigration policy:
The current state of the border, where millions of people are coming into the country without us knowing who they are or why they’re here, is unacceptable. We must secure our border. We should be humane, but we should also be wise. I support measures that will strengthen our border security and stem the tide of migrants, including tightening our asylum laws, increasing the number of immigration judges so we can process asylum cases more quickly, and investing more in technology and infrastructure to prevent illegal entry.
At the same time, legal immigrants are vital to both our culture and our national economy. With hundreds of thousands of baby boomers retiring and our national birth rate steadily declining, we will not be able to consistently grow our economy without legal immigrants. I support measures that will make it easier for smart, ambitious, and hard-working people from all over the world to come to the United States legally.
I support a path to citizenship for adults who were brought to this country illegally as children. It’s not their fault they were brought here illegally. If they have grown up here and have become productive members of society, they deserve a path to citizenship.
My heart breaks when I hear politicians demonizing immigrants. Most of us are descendants of immigrants. The majority of them are people like you and me who are simply trying to find a path to a better life, just like our ancestors.
Decades of irresponsible spending and poor decision-making by both major parties have left our country on the brink of fiscal disaster. Today, both parties inflate budgets (and deficits) to buy voter support. Tax cuts for the ultra wealthy doesn’t help fix the national debt, but it is an effective way for a politician to raise campaign funds.
Our national debt has exploded over the past two decades. The Federal government now spends more than $400 billion a year just on interest payments. Social Security is quickly approaching insolvency. But we still have time to act before disaster strikes. If we elect leaders with real political courage—people who put the country’s future over their own political careers—we can implement a plan to stabilize America’s finances, save Social Security, and begin reducing our crippling national debt.
For us to have a functioning, durable democracy, it is critical that voters have trust in the fairness and integrity of our elections. I reject the belief that the 2020 election was “stolen”. I support measures—such as voter ID laws—that will help give voters confidence that our elections are not being impacted by fraud.
However, those integrity measures should be combined with other policies to ensure all eligible voters who want to vote are able to do so without undue hardship. I support early voting and mail-in ballots, as long as those policies are carefully crafted to prevent abuse and fraud. I also support measures that proactively help citizens acquire IDs and ensure that people don’t have to wait in long lines to cast their ballots.
I believe the vast majority of police officers in our country are men and women of integrity who put their lives at risk every day to serve and protect us. Villainization of law enforcement has caused lasting damage to our police officers and has exacerbated problems in some of our most troubled communities. We should take steps to repair that damage and make law enforcement an attractive career path again.
At the same time, we should do more to make sure police officers are properly trained to avoid violence when possible, and we must hold police accountable when they misuse their power and abuse the law.
While I believe every human being should be treated with kindness and respect, I am opposed to access for minors of cross-hormone treatments, puberty-suppressing drugs, and gender transition surgeries. The current evidence for the effectiveness of these treatments is thin, and we should wait until people are fully mature adults before implementing treatments that have potentially irreversible effects.
I am also opposed to biological males participating in women’s sports. I believe it is unfair to female athletes and threatens to undermine the outstanding progress we’ve made in women’s sports over the past several decades.
I believe our country’s embrace of free market principles has been a key ingredient in our success throughout our history. Our embrace of these principles has led to unprecedented wealth and prosperity in our country. But I also recognize that government intervention can sometimes be necessary.
When the government gets involved in regulating the economy, it almost always results in unintended consequences. Government intervention should be carefully limited to address specific issues. With that in mind, I oppose across-the-board tariffs and government price controls. I also believe our current regulatory regime is hopelessly complex and should be restructured to ensure that it’s effective and efficient.
Open debate and the free exchange of ideas are critical components of a thriving democracy. There is a disturbing trend in our society to shout down, shame, and silence those with whom we disagree. We must rediscover our ability to discuss problems and debate solutions with an open mind and without contempt for those with different opinions. Insults, intimidation, and violence only serve to undermine causes and alienate potential supporters. Anger never persuades.
I have spent many hours working with friends and community members who are struggling to make ends meet. I believe we have a duty as a society to take care of the less fortunate and downtrodden among us.
The ultimate goal of public assistance should be to help individuals achieve self-reliance. Government is often not the best vehicle to deliver the needed assistance. There are many non-profit organizations that provide services that effectively meet local needs. We as citizens, in partnership with our government, should find more ways to support those efforts.
I believe we have a duty to be good stewards of the earth and the natural resources God has blessed us with. Both our individual behavior and our government policy should reflect that duty.
I also believe climate change is a real and important phenomenon that should be accounted for as we plan for the future. However, I reject the narrative that we face imminent catastrophe if we don’t take extreme action on the climate. We should work toward a sustainable future where we end our reliance on fossil fuels. Government subsidies can have a role to play in helping us achieve that transition, but we need to carefully weigh the costs and benefits of proposed “climate” policies and reject apocalyptic groupthink.
Through our policy decisions over the past 25 years, we have come to a point where our allies don’t trust us, and our enemies don’t fear us. We must take action to change both of those realities.
I believe it is in our country’s best interest to continue to play a strong role in supporting and defending the world order that has served us so well since the end of World War II. Russia, China, Iran, and other totalitarian regimes around the world are interested in upending that order. We need to firmly stand up to these regimes and repel their expansionist actions. With that in mind, I support continued aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.
This will require increased investment in our military so we can be prepared to meet these growing threats. I recognize and respect concerns over both the power and inefficiency of the “military industrial complex.” We certainly need to better manage military spending and the business practices of our defense contractors. I also acknowledge that most of us are worn out by our decades of war in Iraq and Afghanistan and wary of new commitments. But I believe the costs of retreating into isolationism will be far greater than the costs of investing in our military right now. The surest path to a peaceful world is a strong United States and strong U.S. allies.
Many of our current democratic systems and processes are designed in a way that encourages our politicians to cater to voters with the most extreme views. I support systemic reforms that will change the incentives so that politicians are forced to listen to and accommodate the views of moderate voters. This includes open primaries, independent redistricting commissions, ranked-choice voting, and campaign finance reform. I also support term limits for members of Congress.
70% of Missourians are open to voting 3rd party. Thousands across Missouri are already realizing that voting independent, instead of how the parties force us, is a clear path to fighting extremism and healing the unprecedented divide in our country. Join us.
We're excited to have you with us.
