Defend Reproductive Health Freedoms
I will NOT be a second class citizen in my own country or vote for legislation that forces that status on my fellow Kansans! If we do not have domain over our own bodily autonomy, we are not free. In August 2022, 59.16% of Kansans made their voices loud and clear, and we should not be going backwards. However, since that overwhelming response, the Republicans in the Kansas Legislature have pushed offensive questionnaires on women seeking abortions and funded unregulated 'clinics' that often bully women into making a certain choice. We have seen other states push to make medical treatments like IVF illegal and question the legal status of contraceptives. This is unacceptable! We must break the Republican supermajority to end these needless attacks on reproductive health and protect the rights of all Kansans.
Protect Workers' Rights
The Workers Compensation Bill (SB 430) that was finally passed at the end of the 2024 session was a step in the right direction for workers' rights. This bill will make a considerable difference in the lives of every worker in Kansas. Crafting meaningful legislation is a process, but this was a great examples of what can be done through good faith negotiations rather than political theater. I applaud increasing the maximum levels for compensation benefits, adding the cost-of-living adjustment, as well as covering the National Guard and streamlining the system for efficiency. I applaud anything that works for workers here in Kansas.
Vote Yes on Medicaid Expansion
It is still beyond me that this great nation, much less our state cannot figure out national healthcare when 43 other countries already have it. When 82% of Kansas voters want to see the Legislature expand Medicaid, I think it is unconscionable to withhold healthcare for over 150,000 Kansans. What is most absurd is to see how much money the Republican Leadership is leaving on the table to solve a very real problem for many in our communities. It is pure partisan nonsense.
Medical Cannabis
I have seen this issue play out in many states that I have lived and worked in over the years. I witnessed how the legislation in Washington and Ohio wound its way through the process with very different results. I have watched as three of our neighboring states: Missouri, Colorado, and Oklahoma, have managed to implement cannabis legalization, and I can tell you unequivocally that cannabis in this state has become a favorite poker chip of the Republican right. Once again, when nearly 70% of the voters in this state support some form of cannabis legislation, yet year after year, their voices are ignored. Again, we must break the supermajority so that this issue has real hearings and the views of the public may be respected.
Fully Fund Public Education and SPED
We must fully fund public education at every level. Education is a fundmamental right and the tool by which you make you way in this world. We cannot afford to shortchange our children. With Special Education (SPED) funding, I am deeply concerned now that oversight has been passed back to the Legislature that the majority party will drag its heels on providing much more than the courts have required of them. If cannot remove the politics from the debate over public education our children will be the ones to suffer.
Support LGBTQ+ Equality
Every human being deserves safety, security, and dignity. We have seen a never-ending barrage of hateful legislation directed at our LGBTQ+ community (especially for trans youth) flow through the Legislature in recent years stoking the vitriol faced by some of the most vulnerable amongst us. The rates of suicide for trans youth alone, should be enough to tug on anyone's humanity and stop the attacks; but no. Kansas ranks 39 out of 50 in safe states for the LGBTQ+ community and without change to the makeup of both chambers, we will continue to fight these fights over and over. It is time for us to do better!