There are no compromises for human rights.

Hello, I am Cole Epley, a 28-year-old Kansan born in Wichita and raised in Rose Hill. With a professional background in education and foster care social work, as well as 10 years and counting of service in the US Army Reserves, what gets me out of bed every day is getting the chance to advocate for people who need it most. I am a proud progressive who, amongst the vast number of political issues today, wants most to abolish ICE, create safer and easier means of legal immigration, and give undocumented Americans the ability to backlog citizenship without legal recourse. As a nation, we must implement universal healthcare, protect the Department of Education, and advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and women’s reproductive autonomy to be enshrined as amendments in the Bill of Rights.

I want to raise the minimum wage, restore aggressive wealth taxes, and hold both political and financial elites accountable for the negligence and harm committed to everyday Americans. We need better subsidization programs for family farms to protect our rural communities from being cannibalized by profit-driven farming corporations. Finally, I strongly support, advocate, and aspire to one day see universal higher education, universal childcare, and even universal basic income as foundational privileges for citizens and laborers in “the wealthiest country in the world.”