Healthcare is a basic human right. We need to expand access to quality healthcare by:

• Making sure low-income workers can pay their medical bills
• Increasing access to mental health care
• Focusing on preventative care
• Taking the government out of personal healthcare decisions

Lawmakers in Missouri should look out for the people rather than their own personal gain. We need to reform the laws that govern your elected representatives through

• Campaign finance limits
• Limits on lobbyist gifts
• Limiting legislators’ conflicts of interest

The first step toward ethics reform is for voters to elect people who pledge to look out for their constituents’ interests.

Missouri needs Common Sense Gun Laws to keep guns out of the hands of those who would do harm, including:

• Encouraging citizens to secure their guns to keep them out of the hands of children and criminals.
• Closing the Gun Show Loophole to require background checks for people buying at gun shows.
• Requiring training and a license for anyone who chooses to carry a gun in public.

I support our law enforcement officers. I have been heartbroken this year over the senseless killings of police officers, especially Officer Snyder, who was from our community. Policing is dangerous work, and I am thankful that they put their lives on the line to keep us safe.

Republican policies over the last several years have made it more dangerous to be a police officer in Missouri. From eliminating a permit requirement for handgun purchases, to not requiring a background check for private gun sales, to the recent override of the Governor’s veto of SB656, the policies of the majority party have focused on arming civilians rather than protecting our police force. I will work to enact common-sense gun laws that will make everyone safer, including law enforcement officers.

I was very upset over the deaths of Michael Brown and Tamir Rice and shaken over the unfamiliar police response to protests. I wrote some things in response to horrific events that now seem inflammatory. My words were selectively quoted without my lament of “what has happened to my country”; this lament was my reason for speaking. We need policies like community policing and de-escalation training that will slow the tide of us-vs-them thinking.

We need to improve employment opportunities for Missourians by attracting employers who offer sustainable employment. We attract quality employers through

• a quality workforce
• stable infrastructure
• strong education system

In turn, we should demand quality jobs that

• pay a living wage
• do not discriminate based on gender or sexual orientation

We need to take back collective bargaining to protect workers’ rights.

Every dollar invested in early childhood programs greatly reduces future costs in terms of:

• Special Education services in schools
• Unemployment and welfare benefits
• Incarceration

Affordable, quality early childhood programs

• Increase the rate of high school graduation
• Improve a young child’s ability to learn
• Allow parents to work outside the home

Missouri ranks near the bottom of all states in terms of the quality and affordability of early childhood programs.

We need to bring Missouri courts into the twenty-first century by:

• Expanding specialty courts, such as drug courts
• Reforming our Family Courts
• Reforming Municipal Courts
• Revising the Criminal Code
• Establishing community justice centers
• Increasing funding for public defenders