2022 Voter Guide

Candidate Q&A

Why are you running?

I have been so fortunate because I’ve been able to live out my American Dream. From growing up on the family farm here in Central Illinois, to becoming an aerospace engineer and working on cutting edge space technologies for Boeing and SpaceX.  Because of that I've always looked for ways to give back and help others achieve their dreams. I became a teacher at a low income high school. I traveled the world volunteering on more than a dozen projects in various countries. Then, I returned to central Illinois to help on the family farm, and I have been running a local nonprofit feeding more than 1000 hungry children across Champaign County and also serving on our county Mental Health Board. I want to continue that kind of service to the community and the next generation.

I’m running for Congress because I’ve had enough—enough of the divisiveness, enough of self-serving politicians using fear and outrage to win elections, and enough of slogans instead of solutions. 

We need to come together and work for everyday Americans, so they can achieve their own version of the American dream.

What does this office do well, and what needs fixing?

It is hard to find much at all that Congress currently does well, given an approval rating of less than 20%. However, many people do find direct constituent service, such as Congressional staff helping constituents navigate the bureaucracy of federal programs, to be one immediate way that a Congressperson can help their constituents.

There is much that needs fixing, and fundamentally, the rise of hyper-partisanship is the cancer underlying many of the problems. That is why I am running against divisiveness and as a candidate seeking to bring people together. There are a variety of structural reforms, as proposed by the Association of Former Members of Congress and the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress, that need to be strongly considered that can help steer Congress towards working together and solving problems for everyday Americans.

What is the most pressing issue facing your constituents and how do you plan on addressing it?

There are two issues that are the most pressing: inflation and crime. 

Regarding inflation, Congress can no longer blindly spend money. Congressional spending has to be more targeted. I also support current proposals that would require inflation analysis to be part of spending bills. Additionally, for short-term relief, those programs need to be undertaken with extreme caution so that we do not cause side effects that could be worse for the economy.  Political gimmicks like blanket gas-tax holidays will not help those struggling the most and could cause longer term problems. Instead we need to look at programs that can steer relief to working families directly and can also garner bipartisan support in what will likely be a divided government in 2023.

For crime, this will take much more than slogans. First and foremost, we have to address the immediate emergency and combat violence by ensuring our law enforcement has the funding and support they need. Then, we do the hard work of solving the root problems. We have to stop bad policies that will only serve to increase crime, like defunding the police and releasing dangerous criminals back onto the streets.

Our local mental health providers need to partner with law enforcement to keep social and emotional emergencies from becoming police matters. We should promote more community-based policing to increase trust between families and their police. And we must shut down the school-to-prison pipeline in our cities and promote youth development programs.

What specific steps would you take to ensure your office is accessible and responsive to your constituents?

Since two current Republican members of the Illinois Congressional Delegation will not be serving next term, if I am elected, I will be reaching out to the staffs of those representatives, as well as the staff of current representatives that previously represented areas in the new 13th district. I want to bring many of those staff members onboard my team to ensure that my staff would have the experience and ongoing community connections that will be needed to provide the best level of constituent service possible. Especially because, as a first term member of Congress, constituent service will likely be the area I can have the greatest impact for the people I would be serving.