Every American should have access to healthcare they can afford, and I'm focused on the areas where we can move most quickly to get relief for Kansans right now:

• 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

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

Kansans have worked hard and paid into Social Security and Medicare 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 firmly against privatizing Social Security and Medicare.

We also 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 open their own business or translate their military experience into the skills employers are looking for today.

AI is already reshaping our economy, our information ecosystem, and our daily lives. We can either let this continue happening to us, or make sure it works for us. I believe in embracing innovation, but setting ground rules so it doesn’t come at the expense of workers, families, or our privacy and security.

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.

We can welcome new industries like data centers, but it must be on our terms. That means local communities have a real say, our water and energy resources are protected, and families aren’t stuck paying higher utility bills so out-of-state companies can cash in. If these projects are going to be built here, they should create good-paying union jobs, strengthen our local economies, and play by the rules that put Kansans first.

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.

I believe immigrants are good for our state and that ICE is out of control. Too many politicians make it seem like you can't believe that and also believe in strong borders – but you can. We need to overhaul ICE from the ground up, fix our broken immigration system, protect DREAMers, provide a pathway to legal status for the people who play a vital role in our economy, and fund smart border security to keep out violent criminals. A Kansas that works for all of us means all of us.

My wife is an OB/GYN nurse, and like many families, we've experienced a miscarriage. I trust Kansas women to make the right decisions for themselves in consultation with those they love and trust. I'm one of the 59% of Kansans who proudly voted to protect abortion rights after the fall of Roe v. Wade – and I'll fight tooth and nail to protect Kansans' right to make these decisions for themselves.

As a veteran and a hunter, the Second Amendment is deeply personal to me. It's part of our family and our heritage. As an Army infantry veteran and dad, I’ve also seen what weapons in the wrong hands can do, and I’m just as worried about a school shooting as the next parent.

We need to keep guns out of the hands of violent criminals, domestic abusers, and terrorists and make the laws we already have work better. 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. I’m focused on the policies that can get passed and make a difference right away, such as expanding background checks, improving red flags laws to reduce the stigma so people actually use this critical safety tool, and making it easier and cheaper to purchase gun safes and other safe storage methods.

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 who deployed.