Crime | Guns | Drugs | Women’s Reproductive Health | Economy
Seniors | Healthcare | Small Business | Minimum Wage | Unemployment | Voting Rights
Everyone agrees we should be safe in our homes, school, or work. What people disagree on is what we are prepared to do about it. If we want to make Kentucky safer, we need to address the root causes of crime, poverty, addiction, and a lack of access to mental health treatment.
We must invest in our people!
This is personal for me. Like far too many families in Kentucky, my family has known the pain of gun violence.
We must enact common-sense gun safety laws, such as background checks, a reasonable waiting period for purchasing a firearm, and Red Flag laws to temporarily remove firearms from someone who is believed to be a danger to themselves or others.
For too long, wealthy gun manufacturers have bankrolled right-wing extremists for the legislature, and people have paid with their lives.
Kentucky citizens overwhelmingly support these steps, but our legislature has done nothing. We deserve a Commonwealth where we can safely work, learn, play, and worship without the fear of gun violence.
Most people in jail today are there because of drugs, and our jails are bursting at the seams. On top of that, jails are critically understaffed. It puts inmates, staff, and the community in danger.
Most jails offer programs like Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, but there is little support or infrastructure for individuals as they try to reintegrate into society.
We need to prioritize community-based treatment, which will help people stay in recovery and provide an avenue for reintegrating offenders into the workforce, strengthening our economy.
Over 60% of Kentucky counties don’t even have a practicing obstetrician. At the same time, Kentucky ranks 2nd worst in the nation for maternal health outcomes. There are nearly 100 pregnant women a year who die of complications that could be prevented with basic prenatal care. That’s more than one death per week. Our legislature claims to be pro-life, but That doesn’t sound very pro-life to me.
What does our legislature do? They passed more draconian anti-abortion laws. Healthcare providers are being driven out of the state for fear of what lawmakers will do next. Our current abortion laws do not include exceptions for rape, incest, or to save the life of a mother - this is cruel. And attempts like Senate Bill 99, Hadley’s Law, which would have added those exceptions, couldn’t even get a committee hearing.
Kentuckians have spoken on this issue by voting down Constitutional Amendment 2 in 2022, and ring-wing extremists have ignored our voices. I’ll work with reasonable voices on both sides of the aisle to bring sensibility back to reproductive healthcare!
The rising cost of basic necessities such as groceries, rent, car payments, cell phones, internet access, and health care have squeezed working people to the point that take-home pay can’t keep up. Young people and senior citizens are hit especially hard. They are draining savings and driving many families into debt.
We have to do more to help seniors on a fixed income. In the last legislative session, the Senate passed a bill that would have frozen property taxes for Kentuckians aged 65 and older who own their homes and reside there. While Senate Bill 23 did not pass the House, I plan to champion similar legislation in the 2025 session.
Just like everything else, healthcare costs have skyrocketed. We must expand access to the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange and KCHIP (children's health insurance) to provide our citizens with expanded access to a healthy future.
In 2022, the legislature capped the price of insulin at $30 a month. We need to look at what other life-saving drugs that people take every day can be made more affordable.
Small businesses are the driving force in job creation in Kentucky. We need to increase access to capital to help small businesses come back from the pandemic and create a small business incubator fund to support innovation.
In our current economic climate, it’s just not enough just to have a job. People deserve a job that pays enough to raise a family, live in dignity, and have a sense of purpose. The minimum wage isn’t about kids getting their first job. 88% of people who have minimum wage jobs are over 20.
34 states have a higher minimum wage than Kentucky. It’s no accident that those states have better educational systems, healthier populations, and more robust economies.
I am committed to gradually raising Kentucky's minimum age to $15 over the next several years.
Unemployment can happen at any time. Since the Great Depression, the national standard for unemployment benefits has been 26 weeks, but in 2022, our legislature cut benefits to just 12 weeks.
People on unemployment aren’t looking for a handout; they just need a helping hand. I am committed to returning to the 26-week benefits period.
Kentucky is not a red state; it is a non-voting state. Kentucky Republicans make it harder to vote because they know that when the right to vote is free and accessible to all, their hold on state government will be over. There is simply no reason to limit enfranchising policies like early voting and voting by mail other than to keep marginalized communities from accessing the ballot.
Voting should be easy, secure, and protected. This means expanding registration with same-day voter registration and access to mail-in ballots for all Kentuckians. If you can make a mortgage payment online, you should be able to update your voter registration.