My children and yours deserve better. Missouri ranks 49th in average teacher pay at $55,132, and teachers lose ground each year when adjusted for inflation. The Republican-led House passed a budget $190 million short of fully funding the K-12 formula set by law. Missouri also ranks 49th in the percentage of state revenue spent on education. Missouri has the funds. This is not a resource issue; it is a matter of priorities.

Missouri’s children are our greatest asset. What’s more of a priority than that?

Fully funding education means funding the Foundation Formula every year without exception. We must raise teacher pay to competitive levels to retain top educators. We need to fund transportation, early childhood programs, the arts, and special education. We must close corporate tax loopholes, end the expansion of private school vouchers, and make education a protected budget item. Our children are not just a number in the budget; they are our future.

Strict photo ID laws passed by our Republican-led legislature disenfranchise voters, especially people of color, rural residents, those with limited income, seniors, and people with disabilities. For many, voting now means being pushed onto a provisional ballot system.

Federally, the SAVE America Act would add more documentation hurdles. Missouri offers no same-day voter registration or voting drop boxes. This is not election integrity. It is clear voter suppression. To expand access, we need to enact same-day registration, broaden no-excuse absentee voting, and reinstate drop boxes. Voting is not a privilege. It is foundational and should be easy, not hard.

In Nov. 2024, we amended the Missouri Constitution to legalize abortion up to fetal viability—a major victory. Then, the Republican legislature placed a new abortion ban on the 2026 ballot to repeal those rights. The ban, also Amendment 3, restricts most abortions, with narrow exceptions. My opponent, Sherri Gallick, who is endorsed by the Missouri Right to Life PAC, has opposed abortion rights.

This isn’t hypothetical. It’s a coordinated effort to override voters' will. We must vote NO on the ban, elect officials who uphold these rights, support organizations fighting restrictions, pass laws codifying reproductive healthcare, and ensure every woman knows what’s on the ballot and who put it there. Missourians have already spoken. My job is to make their voice heard.

In November 2024, Missouri voters passed Proposition A, raising the minimum wage to $15 and securing paid sick leave. This was a clear mandate. The legislature, including my opponent Sherri Gallick, repealed paid sick leave and removed future inflation adjustments, cutting wages and sick leave for over 728,000 Missourians.

Governor Kehoe signed this into law. A minimum-wage earner must work 55 hours a week to afford a modest apartment in Missouri.

Let’s restore and constitutionally protect paid sick leave. Demand that the $15 minimum wage include inflation adjustments. Support small businesses through tax credits and funding, and urge legislators to expand affordable childcare and healthcare. Speak up against policies that widen wealth gaps and mobilize your community to fight for economic fairness.

Missouri faces a coordinated attack on human dignity.

A journalist called Missouri "ground zero for anti-transgender legislation," and the label fits. In 2023, former Governor Parson signed bills banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors and barring transgender girls and women from sports teams matching their gender identity. By 2025, lawmakers tracked dozens of anti-trans bills targeting healthcare, education, bathrooms, documents, and pronouns.

At the federal level, President Trump signed executive orders establishing a two-gender policy and ending all DEI efforts in the federal workforce, undoing civil rights protections secured since the ‘60s. Of course, Missouri’s Republican-led legislature followed suit, banning state funding for university and agency DEI programs.

Local agreements allow officers to ask about immigration status during traffic stops and 911 calls, leading to deportations. A broken taillight or domestic violence call can now result in removal from the state. This must stop.

We need to repeal the gender-affirming care ban and return healthcare decisions to transgender youth and their families; restore DEI programs in public universities and agencies; reject new agreements that turn police into immigration agents; and pass a Missouri Human Rights Act to protect LGBTQ+ people from discrimination in housing, jobs, and public spaces. These state-level protections do not exist. Every Missourian deserves to live free from government fear.

I’ve lived this. For 20 years, I’ve managed a chronic health condition, hitting my out-of-pocket maximum almost every year. I’ve been denied essential medication many times and spent hours arguing with insurance and doctors over treatments already prescribed. I’m one of the lucky ones. I had a doctor to fight with me, time to navigate the system and insurance, and a partner who handled most of it while I was ill.

Most Missourians aren't that lucky.

Insurance is not a guarantee of affordability. Forty-two percent of Missouri residents say they could not pay an unexpected $500 medical bill right away, and the situation is worsening.

Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" cuts $1 trillion in federal Medicaid funding over the next decade, and estimates suggest it could leave up to 189,000 Missourians without insurance.

In our state, one-third of rural hospitals are already at risk of closure, and now they face a 29% reduction in Medicaid reimbursements. Rural Missourians could soon face drives of three or four hours just to reach emergency care. Meanwhile, ACA insurance premiums in Missouri are projected to increase by more than 23% in 2026, affecting roughly 417,000 enrollees.

This is not a broken system. It is a system that works exactly as designed — for insurance companies and pharmaceutical corporations, not for people.

We must fully fund and protect Medicaid expansion for 1.25 million Missourians. We need state-level prior-authorization reform to prevent insurers from overriding doctors, expand community health centers in underserved and rural areas, and support universal healthcare at the federal level. Healthcare is a human right, and we must govern accordingly.