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<h1 style="text-align: center;">There are no compromises for human rights.</h1><h4>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.</h4><h4>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.”</h4><h4>From day one, my campaign has been 100% grassroots funded and I will never accept corporate PAC money, bad faith special interest money, or money tied to foreign influence. It would be my honor to be your advocate in D.C. and I will not stop working to earn your support as well as your vote.</h4>

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<img src="https://run.imgix.net/defcf6d9-9e9c-4b47-be06-10c104d78699/ff0ed36e-efa5-4783-8571-cdef98265eea/ff0ed36e-efa5-4783-8571-cdef98265eea.jpg?ixlib=js-3.8.0&amp;bri=0&amp;con=0&amp;sat=0&amp;high=0&amp;shad=0&amp;usm=0&amp;rect=0%2C164%2C1920%2C2410&amp;w=1500" alt="" caption="A young Cole with his mother and father, Jennifer and Jeffrey Epley" align="right" alignwidth="40" tiltdirection="left" variant="framed">A young Cole with his mother and father, Jennifer and Jeffrey EpleyBorn to a US Army Infantryman and a Medicaid specialist, Cole Epley was instilled with the work ethic and moral drive needed to one day advocate for others. Living in Rose Hill, KS and getting his K-12 education within it's public school system, he understands the value and meaning of small communities.Cole's first true love in school was band. Quickly identifying his band directors as his life mentors and role models, he unknowingly set himself up for success by mirroring men who genuinely cared about the wellbeing of children and the communities around them. As the end of high school came about, what was important became clear: make his father proud and join the US Army, but also continue his passion for music by following in his mentors' footsteps. With endless hours of preparation, discipline, and practice, Cole passed his army music audition at 17-years-old and made the leap into army basic training less than a week after graduating high school.While humbly knowing his MOS (army specific role/job) was nothing like his father's, he is proud to have been sent to Fort Benning, GA to complete his Basic Combat Training like his father just 25 years prior, getting to share a special bond that he didn't expect would be so important to the both of them.<img src="https://run.imgix.net/defcf6d9-9e9c-4b47-be06-10c104d78699/ae4fbef7-bca8-4d7b-ba82-d5c8ca423d4f/ae4fbef7-bca8-4d7b-ba82-d5c8ca423d4f.jpg?ixlib=js-3.8.0&amp;bri=0&amp;con=0&amp;sat=0&amp;high=0&amp;shad=0&amp;usm=0&amp;rect=0%2C62%2C720%2C651&amp;w=1500" alt="" caption="Newly graduated Specialist Cole Epley and Major Jeffrey Epley." align="left" alignwidth="32" tiltdirection="right" variant="framed">Newly graduated Specialist Cole Epley and Major Jeffrey Epley.Upon completing the rest of his training at the Army School of Music, Cole returned to Wichita and attended Butler Community College for a semester before transferring to the University of Kansas to follow through with his second goal of becoming a band director and inspiring students the same way his mentors did. In college, to make an impact in his community, Cole became involved in political activism in Lawrence and Kansas City.<img src="https://run.imgix.net/defcf6d9-9e9c-4b47-be06-10c104d78699/a5005b94-97c0-4130-9a09-d0e7899169f6/a5005b94-97c0-4130-9a09-d0e7899169f6.jpg?ixlib=js-3.8.0&amp;bri=0&amp;con=0&amp;sat=0&amp;high=0&amp;shad=0&amp;usm=0&amp;rect=0%2C0%2C540%2C455&amp;w=1500" alt="" caption="Cole was a member of the KU Marching Band for four years, serving the last two as the mellophone section leader." align="right" alignwidth="40" tiltdirection="left" variant="framed">Cole was a member of the KU Marching Band for four years, serving the last two as the mellophone section leader.Despite academic setbacks due to the passing of his father, mental health issues, and the COVID-19 pandemic, Cole pushed through and completed his music education degree. Even with achieving this goal however, Cole had never felt less sure about his future and how he wanted to better his community.For the final time, Cole returned back to Wichita. Now unsure about music education, Cole followed the one true through line of all his previous goals–his love for advocating and caring for people–and took a leap of faith on a job opportunity in the field of foster care social work.Assuming the role of a case coordinator for five to seven teenage boys in a group home as their primary caretaker, Cole instantly found his professional calling. Cole continued in that role for two years before becoming a foster care case manager for young adults transitioning out of the foster care system.Recently, due to the financial and employment instability of social work, Cole currently finds alternate ways to help his community. He continues to serve in the US Army Reserves (10 years strong), takes care of the house, and puts his efforts towards this political campaign. Everyday he roots for his younger brother, a U.S. Marine in flight school, and his younger sister, a payroll specialist working alongside their mother. He could not be more thankful to his amazing partner Anna, an ICU nurse, for enabling and supporting him to take this leap of faith in order to advocate for everyone.<img src="https://run.imgix.net/defcf6d9-9e9c-4b47-be06-10c104d78699/d36eda24-7804-48f1-8701-e39b1047e293/d36eda24-7804-48f1-8701-e39b1047e293.jpg?ixlib=js-3.8.0&amp;bri=0&amp;con=0&amp;sat=0&amp;high=0&amp;shad=0&amp;usm=0&amp;rect=0%2C0%2C1491%2C1598&amp;w=1500" alt="" caption="Cole and his better half, Anna" align="left" alignwidth="40" tiltdirection="right" variant="framed">Cole and his better half, AnnaCole's background and life circumstances have prepared him to be an advocate, a helping hand, and a leader in his community. Receiving your support, whether through word-of-mouth, donations, or even volunteering, would help him in his campaign to represent Kansas Congressional District 4.

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We simply cannot beat Ron Estes's corporation-backed multimillion dollar media blitz this fall. We will have to utilize the one resource his money can't buy: people who care. Our winning strategy will be boots-on-the-ground canvassing and phone banking to reach as much of the 750,000 person population our amazing congressional district contains.If you are willing to help be that winning resource, volunteering to be on our roster for canvassing, phone banking, and other means of connecting with our community will never be taken for granted.

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Righting the ship isn't enough. Simply being "anti-Trump" doesn't truly progress our country for the better. What is next for the betterment of the United States once this administration's issues are resolved? I believe that we must advocate and push for the next chapter of working class empowerment. Without championing aspirational policies, how can we aspire to be better?

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While I support the true end goal of Universal Healthcare for all Americans, making some VA programs redundant, I know that aspiration is a process that will take time, both culturally and administratively. What we can do right now is work to reverse the cuts to the VA that the Trump administration and DOGE have done, like the layoffs of 40,000 employees in fiscal year 2025 of which 88 percent of those who left the Department were health care staff, including doctors, nurses, mental health clinicians, and other frontline employees.I've seen firsthand how the VA helped my grandfather, a drafted Vietnam army veteran, my father, an army infantryman turned logistics officer, and what it will eventually do for myself and my brother, a marine officer in flight school. We must protect the VA today and restaff it to work as well as it did prior to Trump's second term.Relative Sources:<a href="https://www.veterans.senate.gov/2026/1/cuts-cover-ups-chaos-blumenthal-releases-report-exposing-harm-of-the-trump-administration-s-ongoing-assault-on-veterans" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">U.S. Senate Committee on Veteran Affairs - Cuts, Cover-Ups, &amp; Chaos: Blumenthal Releases Report Exposing Harm of the Trump Administration's Ongoing Assault on Veterans</a>

Reviving the VA to Support Veterans

We need to empower all 14 of our territories, such as Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands, and others, as well as the state of Hawaii, by reversing the unethical ownership of large swathes of crucial land currently owned by "mainland millionaires" and giving economic power back to their respective local governments. The Jones Act, an outdated policy of only allowing trade vessels of American origin to enter ports of U.S. territories, is significantly impacting residents' quality of life and skyrocketing their cost of living. The Jones Act must be repealed.With this empowerment, we must also offer territories the ability to separate and operate as sovereign national entities if they so choose. We can no longer justify the exploitation of innocent islands and people because of "strategic ownership".Relative Sources:<a href="https://www.cato.org/research-briefs-economic-policy/effect-jones-act-puerto-rico" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">CATO Institute - The Effect of the Jones Act on Puerto Rico</a>

Empowering Our Territories

Driven by profits, megacorporations every year are sending more and more jobs overseas at the cost of this nation's ability to independently manufacture for it's population. They send these jobs to countries that our administration regularly antagonizes and threatens with military action. If conflict were to arise, we would be crippled in a matter of months due the corporate elite's dismantling of our stateside production. We must incentivize—and in some vital markets, require—large scale manufacturing to return to U.S. soil, reclaiming millions of meaningful jobs in the process.Relative Sources:<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZTGwcHQfLY&amp;t=2796s" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SmarterEveryDay - I Tried To Make Something In America (The Smarter Scrubber Experiment) - Smarter Every Day 308</a>

Reclaiming Our Status as a Manufacturing Titan

Due to the recent actions and blatant disregard for human life, we must not accept anything less than the abolishment of ICE. This agency is well past the point of reform and their actions have proven that they are more of a danger to our communities than anything resembling help and safety. There is no reforming hate.To help and encourage the next generation of immigrant Americans, we must make immigration easier, safer, and cheaper. Additionally, we must right the wrongs of our previous xenophobic policies. I propose a program to allow undocumented Americans the ability to formally begin the immigration process without the threat of legal recourse or deportation.This program would not only empower disenfranchised and marginalized Americans, it would allow them to more formally contribute and participate in their communities through official employment and paying income tax. Shortly after the implementation of this program, we would be able to deduce that those individuals who are still undocumented are, in fact, here in bad faith. We could save money by having local and state law enforcement handle these rare fringe cases instead of a bloated, redundant, and costly ICE agency.Relative Sources:<a href="https://www.npr.org/2026/01/21/nx-s1-5674887/ice-budget-funding-congress-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NPR - How ICE grew to be the highest-funded U.S. law enforcement agency</a>

ICE and Immigration

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Meet-and-Greet - White Crow Cider Company

It is simple: Elections should not be bought. They should be earned. The ability for PACs and other bad faith entities to pump unlimited amounts of money into campaigns must end. We must push for our elections to have a higher sense of integrity.Once elected, whether at the federal, state, or local levels, officials should not be holding stock in any capacity. This goes for their families as well.We must expect a higher standard of accountability from our elected officials. I am here to meet that standard.

Ending Citizens United, Stock Trading, and Accountability

One of the core crises that Trump's Big "Beautiful" Bill created is that of the ever-increasing healthcare deserts that significantly affect our rural communities. Since July, over a trillion dollars of cuts to Medicaid and the Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP), as well as an additional $120 billion in losses to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), have affected the people that rely on them the most to keep their families safe and fed.In our own district, Rock Regional Hospital in Derby closed just at the start of 2026. Now, Pratt Regional Medical Center, along with other rural cornerstone medical facilities across the nation, face the looming reality of closing their doors. People will die. Communities will suffer. Highly trained medical professionals will go without work. We must reverse these policies and create robust financial supports to keep these crucial medical facilities open and well-staffed, whether they are "profitable" or not.Relative Sources:<a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-truth-about-the-one-big-beautiful-bill-acts-cuts-to-medicaid-and-medicare/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Center for American Progress - The Truth About the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s Cuts to Medicaid and Medicare</a><a href="https://www.kake.com/home/concern-grows-about-pratt-regional-medical-center-after-it-defaults-nearly-1-6m/article_aa95296b-b4ee-4a57-af89-38fb58486dec.html?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=facebook_KAKE_News&amp;fbclid=IwY2xjawP_N35leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeXBx92Inlg6MutXvg4oej1SKYmxid7wH_6qOeHfRr5MHWO-N1hl8SuZzBRA0_aem_oWfhyQQa-XOPCaW59y2cUA" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">KAKE News - Concern grows about Pratt Regional Medical Center after it defaults nearly $1.6M</a>

Healthcare Deserts and Hospital Stabilization Programs

Without question, the federal minimum wage must reflect the actual needs of Kansans while also restoring the American dream. The working class once had a capital power to choose to lead a life where a family of four could live comfortably on a single source of income; corporate profit margins have taken that from us. In 2025, working $7.25 an hour, 40 hours a week, for a year ($15,080/year) still leaves you around $500 shy of the individual/1-person family poverty line. The 2025 4-person family poverty line $32,150. Why do we allow our fellow Kansans to live so close to poverty when we have the ability to fix it. While various organizations will report different numbers, we know the new federal minimum wage must be at least $20 an hour.In the long run, the only true solution to combat wage theft and achieve true financial empowerment for American laborers is to introduce legislation that puts a pay-ratio cap into place (i.e. a CEO/owner can only make, at most, 50 times more than the lowest paid employee). Any other solution would simply decay due to runaway economic inflation.Relative Sources:<a href="https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/federal-poverty-level-fpl/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Healthcare.gov - Federal Poverty Level</a>

The Federal Minimum Wage

As someone who has painfully had to do case management for missing children in the foster care system, the true emotions and words I would like to share on this topic are indescribable in polite terms.I will simply say this: there are no exceptions to accountability, regardless of who you are or what office you hold, for having genuine connections to Epstein and the child sex-trafficking industry.

The State of the Epstein Files

Our social security program is silently in it's death throws. With the current trajectory set in place by DOGE, some expert say that our social security program could be completely insolvent as early as 2032.We currently live in a nation that over-prioritizes the DoD and DHS budgets while simultaneously sending over $40 billion to foreign countries like Argentina. That is your money, and it could be used to actually help Americans. We have the ability to fix looming threats like the social security crisis, but our current administration and representatives instead choose negligence, or worse, privatization. We have to invest more of our current federal budget into social security to: 1) stabilize the balance, and 2) increase cost-of-living adjustments in order to better align with reality.Regarding the links below, I value their analysis but not their solutions. There are bad faith experts amongst the social security conversation that want to involve trust funds or other privatized "solutions." Let's be clear: they aren't solutions, they are methods of kicking the can down the road and indebting our country to financial elites even more than we already are.Relative Sources:<a href="https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v70n3/v70n3p111.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Social Security Administration - The Future Financial Status of the Social Security Program</a><a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-real-issues-facing-the-social-security-program-arent-inefficiency-or-fraud/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Brookings - The Real Issues Facing the Social Security Program Aren’t Inefficiency or Fraud</a><a href="https://www.crfb.org/blogs/social-security-turns-90-its-racing-towards-insolvency" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget - As Social Security Turns 90, It's Racing Towards Insolvency</a>

The State of Social Security

Disregard for the wellbeing of Native Americans has become the norm for centuries at this point in the U.S. We do nothing to support reservations and allow corporations to regularly get away with desecrating their lands, a further insult to injury. We need a better way to represent Native Americans by giving reservation and tribal community leaders a voice in federal policy. While a final vision would take a lot of refinement and collaboration with Native American communities, meaningful solutions could manifest as an advisory board or even additional tribe-elected representatives being added to the House. Studies show that we need more representatives due to our population size. Why not give representative power to those of communities and tribes here long before the United States was established?Relative Sources:<a href="https://www.gao.gov/blog/funding-and-programs-meant-help-tribes-may-not-be-reaching-them" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Government Accountability Office - Funding and Programs Meant to Help Tribes May Not Be Reaching Them</a><a href="https://www.amacad.org/ourcommonpurpose/initiative/enlarging-house-representatives" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">American Academy of Arts and Science - Enlarging the House</a>

Elevating Native American Voices

Come visit Coffee Daze, grab a coffee, and let me know what is important to you this election cycle! RSVP is free and simply lets us know that we should expect you!

Meet-and-Greet - Coffee Daze

Come visit Coffee Daze, grab a coffee, and let me know what is important to you this election cycle!

Meet-and-Greet - Coffee Daze

Politicians and candidates love talking about affordability... yet never actually give any meaningful, long-term solutions to the issue. It is a lot of empty talk.The truth is that affordability cannot be discussed in isolation of any other topic—it is the end result of dozens of other topics and policies that shape our communities. It is a final score, not a single issue.All of all the policies and positions I support positively effect affordability. I encourage you to read them by continuing through this page. If you have any other questions or notice any omissions, please do not hesitate to reach out to our campaign at the "contact" tab above.

Analyzing Affordability

While America has made genuine progress with wind turbines and solar farms, the third pillar for a surplus-producing, 100% clean power grid is nuclear energy. We need to increase our pace in nuclear power investments and not allow corruption from the oil and coal industries to sway our current or future administrations.Relative Sources:<a href="https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/us-sets-targets-triple-nuclear-energy-capacity-2050" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">U.S. Department of Energy - U.S. Sets Targets to Triple Nuclear Energy Capacity by 2050</a>

Achieving a Green Power Grid

Lets do some conceptual math. If nearly 31% of all wealth in America is held by the 1%, and the 1% consistently obfuscates and manipulates their income through stocks and other means to evade income tax, and we've historically allowed megacorporations to get away with sidestepping most, if not all, taxes year after year... our local, state, and federal budgets are operating far from full capacity. By holding the financial elite accountable for stealing the value of hundreds of millions of Americans' labor, as well as creating laws that account for the ways they receive their "income", we could increase the federal budget significantly without touching a single penny in your paycheck. Expensive policies like Universal Higher Education, Universal Childcare, and even Universal Basic Income, would instantly transform from grand aspirations into trivial lay-ups.For Kansas Congressional District 4, this would not affect any tax-paying citizen that calls this area home. Well... except for Charles Koch.Relative Sources:<a href="https://inequality.org/article/billionaire-wealth-concentration-is-even-worse-than-you-imagine/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Inequality.org - Billionaire Wealth Concentration Is Even Worse than You Imagine</a><a href="https://thefachttps//thefactcoalition.org/oecd-side-by-side-agreement/tcoalition.org/oecd-side-by-side-agreement/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Fact Coalition - Under U.S. Pressure, OECD Agrees to Deal Allowing Continued Tax Abuse by Big U.S. Corporations</a><a href="https://americansfortaxfairness.org/gop-senate-votes-enable-trumps-massive-new-loopholes-wealthy-corporations/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Americans for Tax Fairness - GOP Senate Votes to Enable Trump’s Massive New Loopholes for Wealthy Corporations to Evade Paying Their Fair Share</a>

Billionaire Wealth Tax, Income Accountability, and Universal Supports for Working Americans

Year after year, politicians on both sides of the aisle throw more money at the Department of Defense for less and less results. Since the first independent financial audit in 2018, the pentagon has never passed an audit. Where is that money going? I can tell you first hand it is not being used for meaningful wage increases, enlisted housing programs, dining facility upkeep and food quality, or facility maintenance. It is going into the pockets of defense contractors for bogus, over-costed projects and services that could be done in-house for a fraction of the cost.We can have today's Department of Defense with the today's operational tempo for $167.5 billion cheaper (or even more) by simply cutting out contractors. We need our military budget to be dictated by the military, not private investors.Relative Sources:<a href="https://www.pogo.org/analyses/dod-contractors-cost-nearly-3-times-more-than-dod-civilians" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Project on Government Oversight - DoD Contractors Cost Nearly 3 Times More than DoD Civilians</a>

Optimizing the Defense Budget

Bad faith actors cannot be allowed to consistently use the rights of others as bargaining chips and distractions to seize more financial gains and power in D.C. We must protect trans rights and gay marriage permanently by enshrining them as amendments in the Bill of Rights. We must also create federal standards and safeguards so individual states can't marginalize and disenfranchise the transgender community with draconic policies involving birth certificates and state-issued IDs—issues that current Kansans are facing.Relative Sources:<a href="https://www.aclu.org/cases/kansas-v-harper" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ACLU - Cases - Kansas v. Harper</a>

LGBTQ+ and Trans Advocacy

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Meet-and-Greet - Moxie Community Pub

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No American should have to wait for their state government to come around on the recreational use of low-risk drugs. Marijuana needs to be legalized at the federal level to lower the amount of racially fueled and pointless incarcerations across the country. For the good of our most vulnerable populations, we must decriminalize the possession and use (not sale) of "hard drugs". Instead of throwing endless amounts of money away to privatized prisons, we could instead spend as much as 88% less by sending those with arrested for drug use to rehabilitation programs.Relative Sources:<a href="https://csgjusticecenter.org/2021/02/25/prioritizing-prison-over-substance-use-treatment-costs-kansans-safety-and-money/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Council of State Governments Justice Center - Prioritizing Prison over Substance Use Treatment Costs Kansans Safety and Money</a>

The Decriminalization of Drug Use

There are no compromises for human rights. We cannot turn back the clock on the atrocities that have taken place, but we have the power to prevent it from continuing. As a country with our own agenda, we cannot in good faith choose the fate of Palestinians. However, we can protect, nurture, and advocate for remaining Palestinians to have a truly equal platform to speak their truths to the United Nation and other international authorities.Our ally, Israel, has shown they are willing to use the weaponry provided by the U.S. to launch aggressive and unprovoked attacks on innocent Palestinians, Syrians, and even more recently, beginning a long-ranged, missile focused conflict with Iran.We don't have to pit ourselves against Israel, but we must hold ourselves and our allies accountable for atrocities committed against innocent people. We must stop providing and selling military equipment to Israel. If we claim to be the infallible international leader we are, we must prove it with our actions rather than our thoughts and prayers.Relative Sources:<a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/israel-has-committed-genocide-gaza-strip-un-commission-finds" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">United Nations - Israel has committed genocide in the Gaza Strip, UN Commission finds</a><a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Israel-Iran-conflict" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Britannica - Israel-Iran Conflict</a>

The Genocide in Gaza

The "free market" recently has found a new way to weaponize and profit off of addiction: digital sports betting and even worse, "prediction market" gambling. We must put massive regulations on these industries to combat the predatory practices that take advantage of everyday Americans.Relative Sources:<a href="https://www.statnews.com/2025/11/11/sports-betting-apps-public-health-crisis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">STAT News - The rise of sports betting is a growing public health crisis</a>

The New Gambling Epidemic

We must support those being wrongfully invaded.This isn't about the geopolitical positioning of NATO or "holding Russia back", this is about fighting for and supporting the innocent families that call Ukraine their home and want to represent themselves with their own government. As soon as it didn't fit Donald Trump's narrative, he cast this crisis aside and told Ukraine to fend for themselves. Formalizing consistent and regular aid to Ukraine via the House of Representatives and the Senate is what must be done to protect the innocent.Relative Sources:<a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/why-the-pentagons-pause-on-weapons-to-ukraine-backfired/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Atlantic Council - Why the Pentagon’s ‘pause’ on weapons to Ukraine backfired</a>

Holding the Line in Ukraine

Just recently, NASA faced a nearly 40% budget cut from the Trump administration. Thankfully, congress rejected these assaults on science and his overall crusade on "intellectualism" by choosing to keep the budget the same (although, it is technically 1.6% less than last year).Currently, we are wasting money on an Artemis program that is not mission oriented. It has been designed solely to line Elon Musk's pockets. He wants to send up to 28 rockets to orbitally refuel an egregiously oversized landing craft on the taxpayer's dime to perform a single, short-stay moon landing. What is worse? SpaceX is years behind schedule and, due to the slow and systemic gutting of NASA's various departments throughout the decades, the only realistic alternative to getting the Artemis program back on track is Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin. We must keep the sanctity of space science and space travel in the hands of the people, not in the hands of billionaires.NASA is our leading organization in the tracking of earth science and climate change. We need to be providing NASA with more funding so America's brightest can lead our charge into space as well as give us the data needed to save our environment, all with public interest at the forefront.Relative Sources:<a href="https://www.commerce.senate.gov/2026/1/ves-existential-threat-from-trump-budget-as-senate-rejects-gutting-nasa-nsf-nist" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation - Science Survives Existential Threat From Trump Budget as Senate Rejects Gutting NASA, NSF, &amp; NIST</a><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoJsPvmFixU&amp;t=3719s" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SmarterEveryDay - I Was SCARED To Say This To NASA... (But I said it anyway) - Smarter Every Day 293</a> - 28:50 for math involving refueling launches for Artemis III

NASA, Artemis, Earth Science, and the Privatization of Space

We must defend and rebuild the Department of Education to ensure the enforcement and protection of core policies like the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). At the federal level, we must create safeguards and guidelines that require a higher level of equity between school districts' funding at the state level to protect marginalized districts. As well, we should always be striving for the next milestone of empowering the next generation: universal higher education and student loan forgiveness.Relative Sources:<a href="https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/how-money-matters-factsheet" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Learning Policy Institute - How Money Matters: Education Funding and Student Outcomes</a>

Public Education

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Trump's tariffs have wreaked havoc on our local farming communities. With backed up supply chains, artificial and circumstantial international competition, and this administration bailing out MAGA-aligned foreign entities such as Argentina via beef imports, our farmers are suffering. We must end Trump's tariffs and reinforce economic incentives to use logical, local supply chains with our farmers' wellbeing at the center.Relative Sources: <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-argentina-beef-imports-executive-order/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">CBS News - Trump signs executive order quadrupling beef imports from Argentina</a>

Tariffs and American Farming

Kansas has always been a state where women's rights are championed. I was proud to have seen us be the first individual state to vote 59-41 to maintain the right of reproductive autonomy. Despite this landmark 2022 victory, opposition at every level is still dead-set to overrule the will of the people time and time again. We must end this discussion for good and enshrine women's reproductive autonomy as an amendment in the Bill of Rights.Relative Sources:<a href="https://www.kcur.org/2025-01-15/kansas-republicans-again-propose-near-total-abortion-bans-despite-constitutional-protections" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">KCUR - Kansas Republicans again propose near-total abortion bans, despite constitutional protections</a>

Women's Reproductive Autonomy

Kansans are suffering and Healthcare executives are thriving. The profit incentive of the healthcare industry is inherently designed to harm Americans. There is a reason your treatment is always denied: they want your money without actually helping you. To boot: every year they pay off legislators to try to pass bills to hold insurance companies less and less accountable for denying your right to medical care.In a United States with universal healthcare, not only would your medical needs never get denied, but the overall system would be 13% cheaper than what we are currently paying as a nation now.Politicians that are lining their pockets with healthcare PAC money try to scare you telling you that it would raise your taxes. It would. But, it would also significantly raise your paycheck from your employer since you no longer need a company healthcare plan. You also wouldn't need to pay premiums or deductibles. Not only does universal healthcare optimizes our paychecks by saving us up to 13%, it also helps the lives of every American.Relative Sources:<a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8572548/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">National Center for Biotechnology Information - National Library of Medicine - Improving the Prognosis of Healthcare in the United States</a>

The Desperate Need for Universal Healthcare

We are seeing, now more than ever, a corrupt and partisan supreme court that has shielded this administration from accountability for actions that simply and blatantly violate the constitution.We must end lifetime appoints to the supreme court and begin enforcing term limits. New appointments should not be made by a president, but by vote alongside our normal election cycle so that the highest court in the land is for and by the people.Relative Sources:<a href="https://hankjohnson.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rep-johnson-re-introduces-supreme-court-justice-term-limit-measure-0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Hank Johnson Government Webpage - Rep. Johnson Re-Introduces Supreme Court Justice Term Limit Measure to Restore Balance, Legitimacy for SCOTUS</a><a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/supreme-court-must-explain-why-it-keeps-ruling-trumps-favor" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Brennan Center for Justice - Supreme Court Must Explain Why It Keeps Ruling in Trump’s Favor</a>

Ending Life Time Appointments for the Supreme Court

Congress has to clamp down on Trump's ability to lead international discussions on the United State's behalf. We need to leave Greenland alone, stop holding Venezuela as a hostage nation for oil, and formally end our outdated disdain and trade embargo with Cuba. We cannot allow ourselves to act as the enemy against those in our own backyard.Also in regards to foreign affairs, finding more neutral ground with Russia and China to minimize future conflict should be a priority of the U.S. government.