The United States immigration system is in need of significant reform. For too long, the issue has been used as a political talking point rather than addressed with practical solutions. The current system is inefficient, costly, and overly dependent on profit-driven structures. My proposal focuses on creating a fair, efficient, and transparent process.

Key Priorities:

1. Border Security and Oversight

   • Increase the number of trained border agents.

   • Invest in modern surveillance and monitoring technology rather than physical barriers.

2. Judicial and Administrative Capacity

   • Appoint additional immigration judges to reduce case backlogs.

   • Expand staffing for background checks and case management to speed up processing.

3. Employment Integration While Awaiting Cases

   • Use unemployment data to identify regions where immigrant labor can meet workforce needs.

   • Provide lawful employment opportunities while individuals await their court dates.

4. Pathway to Citizenship

   • Streamline the naturalization process so that applicants are not forced to wait multiple years.

   • Ensure that efficiency is prioritized over bureaucratic or profit-driven delays.

5. Due Process and Enforcement Transparency

   • End the practice of unmarked and masked enforcement raids.

   • Require clear communication with families and legal representation for those detained.

   • Guarantee due process for all individuals, consistent with U.S. law.

Conclusion:
This proposal would create a more efficient, secure, and humane immigration system. By expanding personnel, modernizing technology, ensuring due process, and providing lawful employment opportunities, we can reduce systemic backlogs and restore fairness to the immigration process.

Women’s rights must be protected and restored. I believe Roe v. Wade should be codified into federal law to guarantee the right to privacy in healthcare decisions. Women must have the ability to make their own medical choices without interference from lawmakers. No one should face prosecution for seeking or receiving healthcare that may save their life or affect their ability to have children in the future. Extreme restrictions in many states have already put women’s lives and long-term health at risk. Equal rights must apply to all citizens.

Key Priorities:

1. Codify Roe v. Wade

   • Establish federal protections to ensure women’s reproductive rights are not determined by state-level politics.

2. Protect the Right to Medical Privacy

   • Guarantee that healthcare decisions remain between patients and medical professionals.

   • Prevent criminalization of women and healthcare providers for necessary medical care.

3. Ensure Access to Life-Saving Care

   • Prohibit state laws that prevent doctors from providing emergency or essential medical treatment.

   • Hold states accountable when restrictions amount to practicing medicine without proper authority.

4. Balance Federal and State Authority

   • Recognize that while states often manage local issues, certain rights—such as access to healthcare—require federal protection.

   • Reinforce the principle that medical expertise should guide healthcare decisions, not political agendas.

Conclusion:
The overturning of Roe v. Wade placed critical medical decisions into the hands of lawmakers instead of doctors, creating dangerous consequences for women across the country. This must be reversed. Women deserve autonomy, privacy, and equal protection under the law. Federal action is necessary to ensure that reproductive rights are preserved nationwide.

A strong system of public education is essential to the future of our children and our communities. Public schools must be properly funded and protected, especially in small rural towns where schools often serve as the heart of the community. Without adequate support, both the schools and the towns they sustain are at risk.

Key Priorities:

1. Protect and Strengthen Public Schools

   • Ensure federal and state funds are directed to public schools, not diverted to private institutions.

   • Provide consistent funding to keep schools in rural areas open and thriving.

2. Accountability for State Leadership

   • Elect and hold accountable state officials who will use education funding responsibly.

   • Oppose efforts to dismantle or defund the U.S. Department of Education, which plays a critical role in ensuring fair standards nationwide.

3. Improve Educational Outcomes

   • Recognize that Oklahoma currently ranks last in education and that turning full control over to state management has not served students well.

   • Establish and enforce minimum federal requirements for curriculum to guarantee that all students, regardless of where they live, have access to a fair and competitive education.

Conclusion:
Public education is not only an investment in our children—it is an investment in our future. By protecting funding, ensuring accountability, and setting clear national standards, we can strengthen our schools, support our teachers, and provide every student with the opportunity to succeed.

Social Security and Medicare are earned benefits that working Americans have paid into their entire lives. These programs must be protected, strengthened, and expanded—not cut. My opponent supports reducing Social Security and Medicare. I will fight to improve and grow them.

Key Priorities:

1. Eliminate the Tax Cap

   • Currently, Social Security contributions (6.2% from employees and 6.2% from employers) are capped at $176,100 of income.

   • This means higher-income earners stop contributing once they reach that threshold, despite continuing to benefit from the system.

   • By eliminating the cap, we can ensure that all earners contribute fairly and that the Social Security trust fund is strengthened for future generations.

2. Increase Program Solvency and Benefits

   • Removing the cap would generate significant additional revenue for the program.

   • With stronger funding, we can explore:

     • Lowering the full retirement age to make benefits available sooner.

     • Increasing monthly benefits for all recipients, ensuring retirees can live with dignity.

3. Protect Medicare

   • Oppose any effort to cut Medicare benefits or reduce access to affordable healthcare for seniors.

   • Ensure the program remains strong and accessible for current and future beneficiaries.

Conclusion:
Social Security and Medicare are promises made to America’s working people. Cutting them would betray that promise. By requiring all earners to contribute their fair share, we can secure the future of these programs, protect retirees, and expand benefits for those who have spent their lives contributing to our economy.

Access to affordable healthcare is a fundamental right, not a privilege. Healthcare should not be tied to employment. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted this urgent need, as millions of Americans lost both their jobs and their health coverage through no fault of their own. This must never happen again.

Key Priorities:

1. Decouple Healthcare from Employment

   • Ensure that losing a job does not mean losing access to healthcare.

   • Build a system where coverage is guaranteed for all citizens, regardless of work status.

2. Guarantee Affordable Coverage for All

   • Develop a nationwide system that provides affordable healthcare to every U.S. citizen.

   • Explore multiple models, including:

     • A Medicare for All approach.

     • A regulated, insurance-based program with capped premiums and transparent pricing.

     • A hybrid model that achieves affordability, accessibility, and quality care.

3. Work Across the Aisle

   • Commit to bipartisan collaboration to identify the most effective plan that protects patients and ensures long-term sustainability.

   • Focus on solutions that prioritize people over profit.

Conclusion:
The United States is the most advanced nation in the world, and our citizens deserve the highest standard of healthcare. By creating a system that is affordable, reliable, and not tied to employment, we can ensure that every American has access to the care they need.

A strong economy must be built from the working class up—not the other way around. History shows that when working families thrive, the economy thrives. As a union member, I know firsthand the importance of fair wages, secure jobs, and policies that strengthen the middle class.

Key Priorities:

1. Tax Fairness

   • Reform the tax system so the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share.

   • Adjust the corporate tax rate to between 21% and 28%, a level that ensures contributions without harming business growth.

2. Support American Workers

   • Reward companies that keep the majority of their workforce in the United States.

   • Impose higher corporate taxes on companies that outsource jobs overseas.

3. Replace Harmful Tariffs with Smarter Policy

   • Current tariff policies are increasing costs for everyday Americans.

   • Instead, hold corporations accountable for moving jobs abroad while supporting those that invest in American workers and communities.

Conclusion:
The backbone of our economy is the working class. By reforming taxes, strengthening labor protections, and incentivizing companies to invest in America, we can grow an economy that works for everyone—not just the wealthy few.

Equality under the law is the foundation of our democracy. To achieve true equality, every citizen must be afforded the same protections and opportunities. Attacks on the rights of any group are attacks on the rights of us all, and history has shown that when one group’s rights are eroded, others soon follow.

Key Priorities:

1. Defend LGBTQ+ Rights

   • Protect the right to healthcare, education, and military service without discrimination.

   • Uphold the right to marry the person one loves.

   • Counter misinformation and hate with policies rooted in fairness, dignity, and constitutional protections.

2. Protect Immigrants and Asylum Seekers

   • Ensure that due process is upheld for all individuals, consistent with constitutional guarantees.

   • Modernize the immigration system to reflect today’s realities while preserving fairness and humanity.

3. Stand Against Discrimination

   • Defend against attacks based on race, sex, religion, or nationality.

   • Acknowledge and teach the history of past injustices so the nation does not repeat them.

   • Build on the progress achieved through decades of civil rights struggles by safeguarding those hard-won protections.

Conclusion:
The rights guaranteed in the Constitution are not negotiable, and they must apply equally to all citizens. As a leader, I pledge to stand with communities under attack, defend equality, and ensure that no group has its rights stripped away. Protecting equality for one means protecting equality for all.