Points of Focus

Smart Growth

“I will work to find common ground for smart growth that doesn’t threaten our environment and undermine what we love about our area.”

Overdevelopment and unplanned growth threatens our community. We must find a way to ensure economic growth while maintaining and preserving our beaches, wetlands, forests, and food supplies, including family farms. Growth must be evaluated and not go unchecked. We must address increased needs for transportation as well as adequate and safe roads. To do this, we must find common ground and identify how the state can support growth that does not threaten our environment or undermine the very aspect of this area that makes it so special.

Environmental Preservation

“I support an environment preservation plan that ensures safe drinking water, protects open space, and anticipates the impacts of climate change.”

Environment preservation is essential to sustaining our economy and protecting the health and wellbeing of our community. Our local economy depends on tourism, which is based on our waterways, beaches, parks, forests, and wetlands. Our families rely on a healthy environment, which includes safe drinking water and recreational water that people can use to swim, fish, boat, and enjoy other activities. We need to preserve our open spaces. Outdoor recreation is essential to our physical and mental health. We must restrict building in sensitive areas and prepare for sea level rise and increased flooding.

Education

“As a lifetime educator, I believe that quality education is a benefit to all and is key to our future.”

Without an education, many of us would not be where we are today. Education can enable people to pursue their dreams and realize their full potential if they so desire. We must provide our students with opportunities from preschool to post-secondary that will promote and encourage successful learning. Quality education ensures we will have the doctors, teachers, entrepreneurs, and scientists of tomorrow, and that we can attract the healthcare professionals and service providers of today we so desperately need.

Healthcare

“Having served on the Beebe Medical Center Board for 16 years, I am acutely aware of the healthcare challenges we face now and in the future.”

Our community was already in short supply of doctors, dentists, and other healthcare professionals before the pandemic hit, and COVID just added to the pressures. As our area grows, we have more residents, more part-timers, and more visitors. As a prime retirement area, our population is also skewed toward those most in need of medical services. For these reasons, we must do everything we can to train, attract, and retain qualified healthcare professionals. And as costs rise and resources are stretched, we need to look for ways to improve our community’s health through wellness, health education, and fitness opportunities.

 Safety

“I believe everyone has a right to feel safe.”

This district has been attractive to many because of its low crime rate, natural beauty, and small-town welcoming spirit. However, we are not exempt from problems and threats. And many of the safety nets we used to rely upon have been reduced or lost. From large-scale threats such as increased major storms and flooding to community-based issues such as senior care, homelessness, gun violence, substance abuse, mental illness, and domestic violence, we must work to ensure that our community has the resources it needs to keep its citizens safe.

Human Rights

“No person in our democracy should face discrimination on the basis of sex, race, national origin, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation.”

As Americans, we have basic human rights—rights to vote, to attend public schools, to have access to public buildings and transportation, and to marry who we want. Yet those rights are under attack on almost every front. Voting is a civil right that must not be disturbed, yet efforts continue to restrict it or make it difficult. Women should not have the government or anyone else making decisions about their bodies, yet recent legislation allows others to make intimate decisions for them. We must defend civil rights, women’s rights, voter rights, and LGBTQ+ rights to keep an America all of us can experience and take pride in.