As Americans, we must protect our democracy and defend against authoritarian rule. We must continue to follow the Constitution. This includes maintaining our system of checks and balances, the independent rule of law, and due process. We must fight to remain a country “of the people, by the people, for the people.”

In Oklahoma, we must always work for a free and fair state, where individual rights are respected and each vote matters.

We must work to increase voter participation, pass SQ836, and repeal Oklahoma Senate Bill 1027. We must end gerrymandering and let the voters choose their politicians, not politicians choosing their voters.

We’ve all heard the saying “follow the money.” We must continue to fight against dark money, special interests, and the ultra wealthy billionaires having an oversized influence in politics.

We must also find ways to restore truth and facts in journalism and media. Almost all media – left or right, cable or podcast – is driven by profit above all else. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “divide and conquer” – that’s exactly what the media does very successfully. The more they can get each side to distrust and hate the other, the more engaged their viewers will be….and the more money they make. At the very least we need ways to easily distinguish between those who commit to truth and fact-based journalism and the opinion hosts and podcasters simply there to say whatever will make a buck. I don’t believe the real division in this country is between red and blue, conservative and liberal. I believe most people are somewhere in the middle. I believe the true cause of division is a small group of billionaires, special interest groups, politicians, and media figures all working in concert to control and profit from the rest of us…the 99%.

We must also continue to support both freedom of religion and separation of church and state. Bibles belong in Sunday school, not Monday school.

We must continue to strive to have the highest moral character. To be a state and country where we respect all people, even those who may look different than us, come from other countries, or have different opinions.

Lastly, we must continue to work toward the middle in politics – there are no solutions in extremism.