Democratic
1. What interests you about serving in this role?
The Secretary of State is the chief election officer in Kansas. Elections have become highly politicized in the last few years, and that introduces a whole host of problems to an institution that is absolutely essential to having a healthy democracy.
I see this as the hour of need; my beloved country needs people to step up and defend democracy. By taking both sides seriously, the Left’s concerns of voter suppression as well as the Right’s accusations of voter fraud, I have the opportunity to work toward healing the deep partisan divide.
2. How do you prioritize competing demands with limited resources?
This is a challenge. I already have had to scale back some of what I initially wanted to accomplish. A lot of this will require working with existing institutions, such as talking with county sheriffs to develop plans for physical poll security, rather than paying for security systems with money I don’t have.
What money I can spare I want to dedicate to cybersecurity, though realistically I’ll probably have to settle for contracting with an existing company rather than build a state cybersecurity office, which is what I’d prefer.
3. If elected, what would your top three priorities be during your first year?
1.Visit the election office of every county in person, in order to understand what they really need. Yes, all 105 of them.
2. Coordinate with county clerks to look at expanding the mail-in ballot window, investigations of mass voter fraud, and preventing poll site closures.
3. Find a web designer, preferably Kansas-based, to rebuild the state website into something easy to use, even for complicated things like business taxes, and incorporating modern reliability and cybersecurity architecture.
4. Please list personal information or other information you feel is important.
Don’t let the college education fool you. I’ve been working class all my life. I was raised by a single mother who worked as a nurse. Most politicians have no idea what it’s like to work three jobs to survive, or cut the food budget to pay bills. I do, and I think we should elect more people who aren’t out of touch with normal working people. I don’t own a business, I work construction. Elect me and you’ll get a Secretary of State whose sole focus is the job, no splitting his time with a side hustle.
