A professional negotiator, Not a  professional politician. Running to flip the Kansas First Congressional District.

Everyday life is getting increasingly more expensive. Tracey Mann is worth millions of dollars and doesn’t have to worry about the price of groceries. His neighbors aren’t so lucky.

Tariffs are driving our costs up. The Constitution says that Congress has the power to set tariffs, but they’ve given up that power to the president. And the president has enacted the highest tax increase in memory by imposing huge, unaffordable tariffs on vital imports. These tariffs are not paid for by foreign businesses. They’re paid by American importers and passed on to us at the grocery store, the hardware store, Amazon, and everywhere else we spend money.

My first priority will be to vote to take back the tariff power from the president and restore it to Congress, as the founders intended. Tariffs can be a valuable tool in setting trade policy, but should never again be used this recklessly. Next, we need an exemption for small businesses. Family farms and other businesses that currently qualify for small business incentives need a carveout to protect them from trade barriers, so they can afford to stay in business and charge affordable prices to their customers.

The current budget, supported by Tracey Mann and the national GOP, is a disaster for Kansans who rely on Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Congress’s non-partisan analysts estimated that if we don’t take action, by 2034 the current budget’s cuts to Medicaid and children’s health insurance will have left over ten million people uninsured. That’s almost one in thirty Americans. The impacts will be widespread. Millions of people will lose insurance, including the elderly, children, and disabled people. The loss of payments will force more hospitals to close, especially hospitals in rural areas that are already financially stressed. 

Republicans claim they avoided those harms with band-aids like a $50 billion relief package for rural hospitals. But that barely covers the losses those hospitals will face, and expires forever once it’s spent. We desperately need real solutions, not fake ones. 

These cuts were not done to balance the budget, which Mann and other Republicans have run farther into the red than it’s ever been. They were done to finance tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest Americans. The rest of us will face a tattered safety net, a state with virtually no hospitals outside of its largest cities, and an aging population with less support than ever before. Republicans know exactly how bad this is going to get: they timed their cuts to take effect in 2027, after the midterm elections, so they would not pay a price at the polls for their mismanagement. 

I will work with Democrats and Republicans to prevent these cuts from taking effect at all. Our social programs are affordable when managed well, and a rational budget can keep us solvent, healthy, and secure for generations to come.

Agriculture drives the First District. Its huge economic impact benefits every Kansan, even those who don’t work in the field, and our farming culture is part of our heritage. But that culture is under attack.

American farmers live in a global economy, and need access to foreign markets to thrive. That access is being threatened by haphazard, incompetent tariffs that should never have been levied. Congress must take back the tariff power from the president, a step that loyalists like Tracey Mann will never take. 

Instead of chaotic and harmful tariffs, Kansas farmers need more support in selling crops for foreign markets. We used to benefit hugely from USAID and other programs that bought food from Kansas to feed the hungry overseas. Tracey Mann voted to kill USAID, at the expense of Kansans, because the national party wanted the money for its own priorities. It wasn’t just an expensive mistake, it was an immoral act. 

Medical experts estimate that USAID over ninety million lives in the last twenty years. If we do not restore the funding that paid Kansans to feed those desperate people, as many as fourteen million people could die, including over four million children.

American farmers are more productive than our ancestors could ever have imagined. They have an incredible power to save lives, but only if they can afford to keep farming and only if their crops make their way to the hungry.

Tracey Mann worked hard to destroy USAID for the sake of Republican elites. I will work harder to restore its promise, not just to keep farming a viable profession but also to save the lives of literally millions of people.

My support for American farmers will also mean rehiring experts wrongfully fired by the USDA to meet arbitrary political targets and working with Democrats and Republicans to overcome the partisan gridlock that has kept Congress from passing a new farm bill since 2018.

I also will prioritize a federal Right to Repair bill, promoting a fair and free market in repair services for farm equipment and other property. This will lower the cost of repairs and maintenance for family farms and other small businesses, while creating new jobs and business opportunities in the support sector.

American universities, scientists, and technical experts have dominated the global stage for generations. Our universities, laboratories, and businesses are all global leaders in science and technology, and American households are safer, healthier, and wealthier for it. But Republicans are attacking the foundations of that strength, undermining our dominance for the sake of the culture war. Congress has allowed the administration to gut the funding and support needed to keep American experts working in the lab. 

The Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse, and Congress used American resources to fund research into cancer cures, Alzheimer’s treatments, crop genetics, basic science, and other vital fields. The Trump administration has illegally “impounded” this money, refusing to spend what Congress allocated in an attempt to look like it is saving money. But rather than saving anything, this illegal policy is costing America billions of dollars in lost research and even lost lives. Congress, under Republican control, refuses to stand up and correct this horrific mistake.

Destroying scientific progress to fight the culture war is a terrible mistake. American prosperity thrives on American innovation, and ending our scientific dominance will only make us a poorer and weaker nation. It will take decades to repair the damage that has already been done, and incumbents like Tracey Mann are eager to vote for more cuts to basic science.

I will make it a high priority to restore funding to the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, beginning the long and absolutely vital process of rebuilding America’s scientific strength.

Kansas voted NO on a constitutional amendment that would have stripped us of our right to choose. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, abortion issues play out more in the states than in the federal government. But as a Congressman, I’ll work to protect Kansas’s choice to respect reproductive freedom. That means voting against a federal ban on abortions nationwide and working to protect the privacy of people who seek reproductive healthcare of any kind.

The GOP budget is wasting a huge amount of money on political stunts. They poured almost two hundred billion dollars into immigration enforcement alone, more than the annual budget of all other state and federal law enforcement agencies combined. ICE now has more money than the Marine Corps, and they’ve squandered it. Our tax dollars have paid for expensive but inhumane detention facilities that were only open for a few months, illegal operations that violated court orders, detention of citizens and legal immigrants, and a hiring spree that’s spending a fortune to add new ICE agents while the old ones are complaining about not having enough legitimate work to do. 

I will vote with Democrats and centrists to pass a budget that rightsizes federal law enforcement, redirecting wasteful ICE spending to agencies that actually need the money. We can keep Americans safe without squandering public resources. At the same time, I’ll seek a return to bipartisan immigration reform, creating realistic paths to residence and citizenship.

My experience in negotiation has made me strongly and proudly pro-union. Organized labor protects American workers by forcing business owners and management to negotiate with the workers who really make things happen. Of all the bargaining tables I’ve seen, the best negotiations are the ones between motivated workers and managers who want to partner to build a better business.

Labor is more important than ever as AI, tariffs, and other disruptions ripple through the economy and affect our jobs. As the administration works to undermine the NLRB and turn it into a partisan tool for ending labor negotiations, I will make protecting fair bargaining a cornerstone of my platform.

As a father of a young boy, I’m deeply committed to promoting public education. I see the benefits to him as he grows up supported by talented, well-trained teachers. But those teachers are being worked incredibly hard for far too little pay, and getting less support from the federal government than ever before. Republicans put the Department of Education in the hands of a wrestling promoter and failed politician who had no experience with education policy and no desire to see the Department succeed. Purely political moves like this reward party elites but come at the expense of students.  

As a college professor, I know that our universities are a vital component of American success. Our institutions produce trained innovators and inventors, talented entrepreneurs, doctors, veterinarians, nurses, farmers, and professionals in every field imaginable. Every dollar invested in a university generates a positive return in state and local economies. But universities are under attack by culture warriors who want political control of what they teach. We need to support the academic freedom of universities to teach critical thinking and true facts, and help professors and students navigate a rapidly changing environment. 

I will support legislation to strengthen the Department of Education and its mission of ensuring equal access to education. I will also work with legislators of both parties to alleviate student loan debt, enabling a new generation of students to grow and prosper with the benefit of an American university education.

In the last few years, Republicans have turned to a new and harsh kind of political correctness. The very concept of diversity is being demonized, and Americans are being called the enemy simply for loving or speaking in ways that party elites don’t approve of.

An American leader should represent all Americans. I will always prioritize the rights and safety of all Kansans, regardless of race, religion, gender, orientation, or any other characteristic.

Kansas’s proudest moments have been those in which we stood up to fight fiercely for our most vulnerable neighbors. Our most shameful moments have been those in which we turned on them. I will lead us from shame back to that pride, standing for every Kansan equally.