For House District 66

Workers are the backbone and the heart of Montana’s economy. Whether you stock shelves in the local grocery store, plow roads, teach students, serve at the neighborhood diner, run your own business, or do any of the thousands of other jobs in our state, you deserve to live in our community with dignity and respect. Workers need the freedom to make decisions for themselves about fair wages, to expect quality affordable health care and to retire with dignity. We owe this to our citizens who make our state what it is. 

Voting is a cornerstone of our democracy. We need to maintain the strength and integrity of our voting system, encouraging every citizen to register and vote to ensure our democracy works for everyone. Efforts to limit voting infringe on our freedoms, liberties, and rights.  

We have a public education system in Montana that is robust and  provides amazing educational opportunities for all of our children.   Every Student in Montana deserves the same educational opportunities as  any other student.  Maintaining an equitable system that includes input  from professional educators, parents, students, and community members  is critical. Funding public pre-k school will give our next generation  of citizens a step up.   Affordable  post secondary schooling is also a priority that we need to embrace.   State land grant colleges and universities were created to make  education available to all citizens.  With two amazing state land grant  universities we can do better providing opportunities for Montanans to  pursue higher education and add to Montana's economy without being  strapped with debt.

Government is critical in maintaining a healthy, functioning society. Government cannot be run like a business, sold to the highest bidder, or entrusted to profiteering businesspeople—this only leaves us with a state that loses quality of services while sending our tax dollars to out-of-state corporations. The bottom line in government is not the bottom line.  We deserve the best public services we can get while supporting the workers performing those services. Public employees work hard for our state and are not driven by profit. We cannot give away the decisions controlling our public services to private corporations. 

Healthcare costs in our state are out of control. For those with insurance, the premiums,deductibles and co-pays are too high.  The price of prescriptions has been far outpacing other healthcare costs.  For much of Montana, distance to comprehensive care creates undue hardship. For those without insurance, medical care can simply be bankrupting. We should not have a system where an unexpected illness leaves a family struggling to stay in their home or put food on the table. We must to do better.

Public lands make Montana and the West what it is. Our wide-open spaces provide endless opportunities for citizens from all over our nation to enjoy the great outdoors. We have a responsibility to protect our public lands for generations to come, just like our predecessors did for us. Restricting access to these lands is an embarrassment and takes away our freedom to enjoy our common spaces. Montana citizens have the right to access public lands, and all citizens deserve to have these lands respected and protected from exploitation.