Where I Stand: I will support all policies that ensure every American has access to affordable health care and prescription drugs.

Why Nothing Gets Done: The health care industry is the largest lobbying sector in our country. In 2024, the health care industry spent over $1.5 billion on federal and state lobbying. They fight to get as much of the 5 trillion dollars we spend on health care each year and have little interest in the overall health of our country compared to their own profits. Until we fix the system that enables their voice to drown out the interests of the average American, we will continue to have the highest pharmaceutical prices in the world, hospitals will continue to close and consolidate, the fight to get medical debt on our credit reports will skew in their favor and meaningful change will never happen.

Where I Stand: I support policies that address our teacher shortages, teacher burnout, free school lunches, programs directed at high-risk kids and fully funding Head Start. I will work to ensure that the Arts and Civics are also a part of every school’s core curriculum.

Why Nothing Gets Done: Total lobbying directed at our public education dollars now totals over $100 million a year. Our total spending on education has remained relatively flat over the last 25 years, but the amount of money spent lobbying has increased dramatically. For-profit lobbying interests on education are approximately SIX TIMES that of the two largest teachers’ unions and now have the largest influence over our politicians. I will listen to all ideas that help to make our public schools the best in the world. Until we fix the system that enables moneyed interests to have the largest voice on spending our educational dollars, we will never achieve meaningful change.

Where I Stand: I will support all policies that ensure we continue to help grow our tech sector and keep it a world leader. I will also demand that guardrails be put in place to ensure our children’s safety, our identities and our sensitive information are all protected. I support modernizing our government’s computer systems to give all of us more transparency and easier access to data. Modernizing our technology within the government is a public good. It will produce more oversight by our citizens and help us to regain our trust in our system.

Why Nothing Gets Done: The amount of money spent by big tech has continued to grow each year. Total money spent lobbying in 2025 was over $108 million dollars. The primary issues they are lobbying against are the Kids Online Safety Act, less regulation in the areas of children’s safety and abuse, limiting their liability for any harm they may cause and continuing to fight against any taxes on their income streams. Until we fix the system that allows tech firms to create policies that affect us all, we will continue to live in a world where our lives are negatively impacted by the unregulated effects of deepfakes, financial scams and AI generated videos that are becoming pervasive in our lives.

Where I Stand: I support making the United States a leader in Artificial Intelligence but will make sure our focus is always on the safety and overall health of the country’s citizens as a number one priority. We must demand that this industry have regulations in place that prioritizes our safety and our rights as U.S. Citizens. I also support creating a safety net system if the impacts of AI drastically reduces the number of jobs needed in our country.

Why Nothing Gets Done: Billionaires and Trillionaires are now firmly in control of where this technology leads and how it will impact our lives. $108 million dollars in lobbying (in 2025) will do that. AI is sucking up our electricity, driving up our electricity rates, eating up our land, surveilling us AND taking away our jobs. No one is telling us how we will be able to earn a living once it settles into our everyday lives. President Trump, along with Roger Marshall, has removed virtually all limitations (and is working to stop states from being able to enact their own) and asked us to “trust them” that it will all work out. I do NOT trust these companies – and neither should YOU - to make decisions in the best interest of our country. I want regulations in place that ensure every American has a voice in how this new technology will impact us. Until we fix the system, AI will continue to go unregulated, and its benefits will only be felt by those with money or power.

Where I Stand: I stand for a strong border, a properly funded and a modern / effective / efficient immigration system. Treating people with dignity and respect while also recognizing we have laws that must be enforced needs to be rallying point for all Americans.

Why Nothing Gets Done: Powerful interests profit from immigrants’ labor while preserving a broken system. Despite advanced government surveillance, we haven’t implemented simple, nationwide tools like E-Verify to help employers confirm legal status and prevent identity theft. A functional immigration system would combine E-Verify with a strong guest-worker program, secure borders, and an efficient legal process. Instead, the current system mainly benefits private prisons ($10 billion per year and growing!) and employers exploiting undocumented workers. Until these structural issues are fixed, immigration policy will remain ineffective and inhumane.

Where I Stand: I support and will advocate for policies that benefit farmers and ranchers in Kansas versus policies that mostly benefit seed companies, processors, venture capital and large corporate interests. Particularly, I will support all policies that help to keep our small Kansas farmers in business and on their land. Multi-generation and small family farms should not come second to corporate, donor and large-money interests.

Why Nothing Gets Done: Kansas farmers are being used as pawns.  After the photo op is over, large corporations and lobbying groups do the business of creating more consolidation and reaping windfall profits. When the small Kansas farmer can no longer afford to work their land, they are then forced to sell to the very forces that put them out of business! When $500 million is being spent on lobbying during Farm Bill negotiations, it should be obvious that the interest of the small-time farmer who can barely pay his bills is not the primary consideration. Real small Kansas farmers will be the ones directing my actions on Ag issues. Starting with Right To Repair bills, SNAP Benefits, Crop Insurance and CRP, I want to be the best advocate for what’s best for the average Kansan. For far too long our farmers have not had a legitimate seat at the table. I will make sure our policies are a direct result of the will of the REAL small family farmer from Kansas.

Where I Stand: Labor Unions must be supported and encouraged. The benefits they fight for carryover into the non-union workforce: Higher pay, better benefits, the 40-hour workweek and safety standards in the workplace are all a result of Unions. We must bring their voice back to Washington! I will support all policies that give our workers the same magnitude of power as the businesses that employ them.

Why Nothing Gets Done: The interests working against these goals are well-funded and overwhelm the money spent by labor unions and interests. To the tune of over $300 million a year, big business swamps our system with money to keep us down and their profits up. The funders in our system are incredibly effective at refocusing our attention on strawman arguments all designed to continue funneling money to the top and keeping our workers stagnant, underemployed and underpaid. Our current minimum wage of $7.25 / hour is a direct result of business interests owning our government and highlights exactly how effectively “bought” our current government is.

Where I Stand: I support a balanced budget. I believe a balanced budget will force politicians to respond with policies that are best for their constituents and force them into an accountability that will reveal whether they deserve our votes for reelection.

We need to pass an Amendment to balance the budget every year. According to the CBO, we are spending $970 BILLION dollars a year on interest. And its growing! It is projected that by 2036 this figure will jump to $2.1 TRILLION dollars. We are paying the price today for their inaction. We cannot force our kids to pay an even higher price in the future because of our inaction today. Tough choices will need to be made. Until we make our politicians explain those choices with policies they must face back home, we will not be solving the problem. Balancing the budget will force us to decide what we prioritize as a country. A balanced budget will make the tax system fairer, put more scrutiny on the influence of large donors and will force the government to properly fund and modernize the IRS, to name a few benefits.

Where I Stand: I will support all policies that ensure our prisons are publicly funded – safe for inmates and guards – and include training programs, social service programs and mental health programs to give our released inmates the best possible outcome once they come back into our communities.

Why Nothing Gets Done: The influence of outside money for prison reform is growing each year. Private prison companies and their lobbyists have been at the forefront of pushing for “reform” that simply means giving them money to house our inmates versus keeping it in the public trust. They fight to keep our inmates in poor condition, uneducated and without services that can help them turn their lives around. Private prisons profit from a revolving door where someone leaves one day and is back in prison a month later. Multiple studies have shown that the recidivism rate from private prisons is higher than public prisons AND the United States has one of the worst recidivism rates in the industrialized world! We need to examine how we house prisoners and set a national standard that must include programs to help assimilate people back into our communities, without the input of moneyed interests.

Where I Stand: I will support all policies that enhance our quality of public services to rebuild America’s faith in national institutions. I will support accountability measures and transparency as the solutions to our government programs before I support handing our money to large-money interests that want to take our money and make a profit.

Why Nothing Gets Done: Billionaires, corporations and investment funds spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year with the goal of privatizing as much of our governmental system as possible. The public good is secondary to the profit motive. Prisons, Schools, Social Security, Student Loans, TSA, Air Traffic Control, US Postal Service, Medicare, Public Broadcasting, Homeland Security, Private Armies, Federal Lands, and Veterans Affairs are just a few of the public’s resources that have been mentioned as targets of privatization. Privatization, almost always, means privatizing the profits and subsidizing any losses that come from it! Our $7 Trillion dollar economy is NOT a giant piggy bank for private interests. 

As your Senator, I will fight the system that seeks to drain our resources while providing substandard options (if any) in their place.

Where I Stand: I support the LGBTQ+ community. I will support all polices that recognize fundamental rights that EVERY American should expect. Our country should be the leader in recognizing the liberty all of us deserve as outlined in the Constitution.

Why It Only Gets Worse: Well-funded campaigns against the LGBTQ+ community are no different than the well-funded campaigns on the topics of abortion, gay marriage, immigration, sexual permissiveness, welfare “queens,” school prayer, divorce and affirmative action. Cultural “hot button” issues, though important and worthy of conversation in a lot of cases, are effectively used to distract us from the accumulation of power and money at the heart of our system’s problems. Our politicians are not leading on these issues as much as hitching a ride on emotional arguments that help to keep themselves in power. It is much easier for a politician to ride on the wave of emotion generated by these issues than to govern and try to please their entire constituency with policies they must stand behind.

Where I Stand: I am pro-choice and will support all policies that protect a woman’s right to make decisions about what’s best for her and her family. I also respect those who disagree.

Why Nothing Gets Done: I find it difficult to understand when most politicians who say they are pro-life are willing to fund and support campaigns that force women into giving birth but underfund the very programs - after having a baby - that would give that baby the best possible outcome later in life. Our Foster Care, Head Start, SNAP benefits, School Lunch, Health Care, Daycare, Social Services and WIC programs are starving for money and attention.  Politicians are not held accountable for the totality of their beliefs in the whole of care for life and have too little incentive to engage with their constituents to find a ground we can all accept.  Keeping this issue singular rewards the wrong candidates and keeps us from reaching agreement.