I have spent decades as a public servant where I have consistently advocated for working families in our community, striving to make government more effective for everyone. This was engrained in me from childhood, growing up on the east side of Topeka watching my family and my friends' families working hard to make ends meet. I keep engaged by volunteering weekly, mentoring youth, and always keeping space for open dialogue with my constituents. Watching and listening have driven my efforts to focus on pushing for increasing wages, making housing more affordable, enhancing access to affordable healthcare, and safeguarding the dignity and constitutional rights of everyone I serve.

1. Your vote is powerful and a constitutional right. We should be looking for ways to make voting more accessible, not implement unnecessary burdens that are restrictive. 2. We must increase the minimum wage to better reflect a living wage. According to ALICE data, 52% of the hard working residents in District 57 have insufficient incomes to afford the basics of housing, food, transportation, health care, child care, and other day-to-day needs. Every Kansan deserves to have what they need to be happy, healthy, and successful. 3. Kansans are struggling to maintain the increasing cost of property taxes. I have heard, and support Topeka and SNCO elected officials who stated their desire to have the Local Ad Valorum Tax Reduction restored.

There are many advocacy organizations and individuals who have proposed strong suggestions that I feel should be priorities for all state legislators. If we truly are public servants, then we need to be engaging in processes that reflect that. Imposing a 72-hour rule requiring all final bill language and amendments to be made publicly available to lawmakers and the public before a floor vote should be codified. Constituents deserve public hearings that they can plan and prep for. Implementing standard procedures across committees removes unnecessary burden on citizens. Bundling has become increasingly problematic. We should implement a lower cap on the number of bills or subjects that can be combined into a single piece of legislation.

I would only support changes to our election laws that aim to increase opportunities for All Kansans who are eligible to vote to have education and access to it. This means more polling locations, easier advanced ballot measures, same-day registration/voting, among a few. There were a few recent changes that are problematic and need to be addressed. Overall, the data proves our elections are safe and there are very few instances of voter fraud that have occurred in Kansas. We have to stop looking at ways to silence the voices of Kansans and instead empower them to be an active participant in their government.