You've heard the flight attendant's instructions: put on your own oxygen mask before helping others. Human nature works the same way — we take care of our own needs before we can show up for a cause, a neighbor, or our community. That starts with affordability: food on the table, a roof overhead, a car in the driveway.

To protect that affordability, we need:

• Strong unions that guarantee living wages and safe working conditions

• Affordable, accessible health care, child care, and elder care

• Balanced real estate development — commercial and residential — with housing costs first-time buyers can actually afford

• Honest conversations about who we tax, how much, and why — right now, the state wants to eliminate property tax and shift that burden onto sales tax for everyday goods and services

Missourians passed the Healthy Families Initiative to raise the minimum wage and guarantee paid sick leave. I'll fight in the legislature to build on that, so "making ends meet" isn't a campaign promise — it's reality.

My top priority: free breakfast and lunch for every student, in every public school. Hungry kids can't learn. I've bought snacks out of my own pocket to get students through the weekend — no child should need that from a teacher. We feed their bodies before we can fill their minds. And we make sure teachers have the supplies and the salaries they've earned.

The people of HD 104 — and all of Missouri — voted to keep health care decisions, including abortion, between a patient and her doctor. Our representative voted to undo that. They're also attacking our right to petition.

And our marginalized communities aren't asking for special treatment — they're asking for the same rights the rest of us already have: to marry, to exist without a traffic stop turning deadly, to make their own health decisions, to petition their government, and to govern our state without federal interference.

Restoring trust starts with actually doing what we say. No bait-and-switch — if we cut income or property tax, we say plainly that money has to come from somewhere, likely a sales tax increase. I'll hold town halls when I'm home, so my legislature work reflects what HD 104 actually wants — and I'll make sure Jefferson City stays focused on the job we were sent there to do, and out of business that isn't ours.