What I hear
I ask people how they're doing and they tell me about the grocery bill. Then the gas to get to work. Then the rent, or the insurance, or the light bill. Then, if there's anything left, the prescription.
This is one of the poorest parts of Missouri and there's no use being delicate about it. In Pemiscot County about 29.6% of people live in poverty, in Mississippi County 19.0%, and in New Madrid County 17.7%. Median household income runs from about $40,000 in Pemiscot County to about $52,000 in New Madrid County. Mississippi County was named the poorest county in Missouri in 2016. All three of our counties have lost more than half of their peak population.
Those numbers are the reason the other two things I'm running on matter so much. A hospital bill is a cost of living problem. A school that can't afford a bus is a cost of living problem.
Food
Food is where I can be most useful, because it's close to the work I already do.
More than 300,000 Missouri families rely on SNAP, and enrollment has been falling — down about 6.6% since May 2025. Missouri is also rolling out new restrictions on what SNAP can buy, with details grocers say are still unclear. I want to be careful here: I'm not going to tell you a program has ended when it hasn't. What I will tell you is that the direction is toward fewer families covered and more paperwork, in the part of the state that can least afford either.
The practical things that help a family this week are food banks, church pantries, school meals, summer food benefits, and food people grow themselves. I support increasing funding for food banks. I support community gardens — not as a slogan, but because a garden in a town with one grocery store is real food.
Being honest about what a state representative can do
I'm not going to promise you I can lower the price of gasoline. One member of the Missouri House can't, and anybody who tells you otherwise is selling something.
What one member can do is vote, show up, and be a nuisance on your behalf. I can vote against a tax scheme that shifts the burden onto the things you buy. I can vote for the food, health and school programs that put money back in a household budget. I can chase down a state agency when somebody's benefits get tangled. I can make sure this district is in the room when money is handed out, which it hasn't been since August 2025.
That's an honest list. I'd rather give you a short honest one than a long one.
Amendment 5 and Amendment 7 are not the same thing
Amendment 5, which voters defeated on August 4, 2026, would have raised and broadened sales taxes. Amendment 7 does not itself raise a sales tax — it would establish a permanent public endowment fund, the Show-Me Prosperity Fund, whose earnings are meant to replace state taxes once the fund generates enough revenue to do it.
Read more: Where I stand on Amendment 7
What I’ll do
- Increase funding for food banks
across Mississippi, New Madrid and northern Pemiscot counties, and for the school lunch and summer lunch programs that feed our children.
- Support community gardens,
and the local grocers, farmers markets and pantries that put food within reach in towns that don't have a full grocery store.
- Make sure every eligible family here is actually getting the food benefits they qualify for
— SNAP and summer food benefits for children — and push back on rules that knock eligible families off for paperwork reasons.
- Oppose tax changes that raise the cost of what you buy.
That's why I asked people to vote no on Amendment 5 back in August, which would have phased out the income tax and put sales taxes on goods and services instead. Voters defeated it. I'm asking for a no on Amendment 7 in November too, for a related reason: you cannot give away the money that pays for schools and hospitals and expect the bill not to land somewhere else.
- Take health costs seriously as living costs.
More local providers, an open emergency room, and prescriptions people can afford are the fastest way to give a household in this district some room to breathe.
Help me get this done
A yard sign, ten dollars, or one conversation with a neighbor all move this race in a district of 38,000 people.