Every American should have access to healthcare they can afford. We need to make major improvements to our healthcare system, and I am focused first on the areas where we can move most quickly to get relief for Kansans right now:

• Stop insurance companies from denying coverage for the care your doctor prescribes you

• Reduce monthly costs by extending ACA tax credits

• Expand access to prescription price caps

• Reverse the Medicaid cuts to protect Kansas’s rural hospitals so people aren’t driving hundreds of miles to get emergency care

• Protect patients from surprise medical bills and aggressive debt collection

• Make insurance, pricing, and billing more clear and transparent

• Increase competition and transparency while cracking down on fraud and abuse

Farmers are the backbone of the Kansas economy. For the past 20 years, market conditions have made it extremely difficult for legacy operations to compete, and the tariffs are making it even harder now.

First and foremost, we need to stop the reckless tariffs that are decimating livelihoods right now. In the longer term, Congress’s inability to pass a bipartisan multi-year Farm Bill has caused uncertainty for farmers and rural communities. Crop insurance provides a critical safety net for our farmers, especially in today’s uncertain environment, and it should be supported. But too many small farms get left out of that equation right now due to cost, access, red tape, and other barriers. We need to expand current programs in place and make them easier to access for new and small farmers who also deserve that safety net.

From irrigation to drinking water, we have to balance the needs of short-term production with the long-term viability of western Kansas and its access to water. I believe that solutions must have the buy-in at the state and local level, but the federal government can be a part of that solution in a supportive role. That includes voluntary programs that provide incentives for producers to engage in farming practices that reduce water use, such as more efficient irrigation or less water-intensive crops, and investing in research for innovative, drought resistant, and resilient crops and practices.

My wife is an OB/GYN nurse, and like most families, we’ve experienced miscarriages. I trust Kansas women to make the right decisions for themselves in consultation with those they love and trust. I am one of the 59% of Kansans who proudly voted to protect abortion rights here in Kansas, after the fall of Roe v. Wade.

In the Senate, I will fund the healthcare resources Kansans need and make it illegal to prosecute Americans for crossing state lines to seek reproductive healthcare. I will fight tooth and nail to protect Kansans’ right to make these decisions for themselves, because no matter how many laws we pass here in Kansas, if politicians like Roger Marshall ban abortion nationwide, access here in Kansas disappears, too.

Our economy only works when workers are treated with dignity and have fair wages and benefits. My dad and uncle were union pipefitters, so I’ve seen first hand how key unions are to the Kansas way of life. Unions don’t just help create jobs; they build careers.

We need to do more to make our workplaces safer, raise wages, and make it easier for workers to join a union and collectively bargain for their rights. We also need a Senator who will not only consistently support economic development projects, but ensure those projects hire union labor and require prevailing wage policies.

As a veteran, I know firsthand the sacrifice our servicemembers and their families make. Too many politicians use veterans as props, and then fight us tooth and nail when it comes to the medical care and other support we deserve when we come back home. The VA is my primary care doctor, and the people who work there are saints suffering in a system that doesn’t let them provide the care they actually want to.

We need to reduce wait times, especially for veterans who live in western Kansas and have to drive hours just to see their doctor. This includes attracting and retaining more medical professionals and reversing the cuts to the VA that Senator Roger Marshall supported, including the thousands of VA workers and veterans who were fired for no reason.

We also need to do more to address the mental health and suicide epidemic. We are just now starting to understand PTSD and the long-term impacts. This will only be exacerbated when it comes to the brutality we are going to face in future wars with drones and robots on the battlefield. The war ends for America once we pull our troops out, but the war is still going on in the minds of those that deployed.

To that end, we must do more to support veterans when they come back home, including tackling veteran homelessness and expanding and increasing awareness of programs that help veterans translate their military experience into the skills employers are looking for today or open their own business.

As a veteran and a hunter, the Second Amendment is deeply personal to me. It’s part of our family and our heritage. But as an Army infantryman, I’ve also seen what weapons in the wrong hands can do and the horror of the suicide epidemic among my fellow veterans. And as a dad, I’m just as worried about a school shooting as the next parent.

I am pro-Second Amendment and pro-commonsense gun safety laws. We need to keep guns out of the hands of violent criminals, domestic abusers, and terrorists. We can make the laws we already have work better. But we can’t alienate law-abiding gun owners or pass laws that are performative and don’t actually do anything to get at the root of the problem. It’s a fantasy to think we’re ever going to get rid of all guns, so I’m focused on the policies that can get passed and make a difference right away. That includes:

• Expanding background checks by closing the gun show loophole

• Strengthening existing federal law to better protect victims of domestic violence and stalking (“boyfriend loophole”)

• Making our red flag laws work better to reduce the stigma so people actually use this critical safety tool

• Making it easier and cheaper to purchase gun safes and other safe storage methods

• Programs that tackle underlying causes: mental health, VA benefits for PTSD, etc.

Kansans have worked hard and paid into these programs with the understanding they’d be able to retire with dignity. Part of respecting your elders is taking care of them and not pulling the rug out from under them. We need to shore up these institutions that are the bedrock of a secure retirement for most Americans. That includes going after fraud and making the ultra rich pay the same share the rest of us do. I am also firmly against privatizing Social Security and Medicare.