Fred On The Issues
Missourians deserve a fair shot at a good life. That starts with affordable healthcare, lower costs, and the freedom to build a secure future. Every family should be able to see a doctor when they are sick, afford the medicine they need, and keep a roof over their heads without being buried in debt.
Our economy should reward hard work, not connections or special interests. I believe in a strong floor and no ceiling: everyone should have the security to build a good life and the freedom to rise as far as their talent and hard work can take them. Families are working harder than ever but struggling to keep up with the cost of housing, childcare, healthcare, and groceries. It should not take two jobs to make ends meet or a lifetime of work to retire in dignity and stability.
Missouri’s strength comes from our people, including immigrants who contribute to our communities and economy. We need a fair and commonsense immigration system that reflects our values and fixes what is broken while keeping our borders secure.
Together, we can build a future where everyone has the opportunity to live, work, and retire with dignity.
Affordability
Every Missourian deserves the freedom to build a good life without being burdened by rising costs. Families are working harder than ever but falling further behind because the price of housing, healthcare, childcare, and groceries keeps climbing while wages stay flat. We must put working families first by lowering costs, expanding access to good-paying jobs, and making sure every family can afford the basics — not just to survive, but to thrive.
Unions and Labor
I stand squarely with working Americans and our labor unions. With American workers getting the lowest share of corporate profits since the Great Depression, wages flat, and more Americans facing uncertainty amidst the affordability crisis, we must do everything we can to better their lives. It is long past time for change and for passing policies to increase wages, strengthen labor rights, and protect labor unions, which have been under relentless attack by the Trump Administration and the Republican Congress.
We must immediately raise the federal minimum wage, protect workers' rights to form and join unions, and ensure equal pay and paid family leave for all employees. It is imperative that we strengthen laws to end illegal union-busting, strengthen collective bargaining rights across all sectors, and invest in high-quality, sustainable job creation that provides pathways for every American to support themselves and their families.
Retiring with Dignity
After a lifetime of hard work, every Missourian should be able to retire with dignity and security. No one should have to choose between paying for medicine, housing, or heat in their later years. We must protect Social Security and Medicare, defend pensions, and strengthen retirement benefits so that those who built this country can live their final years with stability and respect.
Healthcare
Every Missourian deserves access to affordable, quality healthcare that covers them when they get sick or need to see a specialist. No one should lose their home or life savings to medical debt.
Universal coverage must be our goal, but people who are uninsured, rationing medication, or facing cancer cannot wait for a perfect bill years from now.
I support the Leveling the Playing Field approach and immediate reforms that can pass and help people now: restoring ACA subsidies, reversing damaging Medicaid cuts, lowering the Medicare eligibility age, and creating a strong public option.
We should keep working toward a system where everyone is covered. But I am going to Congress to deliver real progress, not make promises that leave more than 20,000 uninsured people in this district waiting for help.
Prescription Drugs
No one should have to choose between paying for medicine and paying the bills. We need to finally bring down drug prices by standing up to the big corporations that put profits ahead of patients. It’s time to hold them accountable and make sure every family can afford the care they need.
Missouri families should never have to choose between filling a prescription and putting food on the table.
Personal Medical Freedom
The choices we make about our bodies, our families, and our health are deeply personal. Whether someone is deciding when and how to build a family or working with doctors to determine the right care for their child, those decisions belong with families, patients, and their doctors, not politicians.
The government should not be tracking medical records, overruling parents and doctors, or denying medically appropriate care because of political ideology. I will defend every Missourian’s right to privacy and oppose efforts to punish patients, families, or healthcare professionals for making deeply personal medical decisions.
This is about individual freedom and I will hold the line.
Immigration
America needs an immigration system that focuses on fairness, dignity, and opportunity rather than favoring those with wealth or influence. It is reasonable to expect a secure border, but our current system is broken, costly, and keeps hardworking people from contributing to our communities and economy.
Missouri’s strength comes from our people, including immigrants who contribute to our communities and economy. We need a fair and commonsense immigration system that reflects our values and fixes what is broken while keeping our borders secure.
Veterans and Military
I am a disabled veteran after a 22-year Army career that included four combat tours, followed by a decade as a veterans advocate in Washington, D.C., helping nonprofits and corporations support the community. I am passionate about protecting our service members, veterans, and their families’ earned benefits and care. I have spent most of my life serving our veterans.
I will relentlessly focus on protecting Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care from privatization, while expanding mental health and suicide prevention resources, and safeguarding mandatory funding for earned benefits against budget cuts. I oppose the current Taking Care of America’s Veterans Act (TCAVA) as written, with Section 108 taking away benefits from future veterans. The idea that the only people being required to adhere to ‘Pay-Go’ rules are veterans while the Department of Defense gets a blank check to wage wars is unacceptable.
We must reverse Secretary Collins’ staffing cuts and reinstate personnel at the VA, strengthen the PACT Act to support toxic-exposed veterans, and reduce veteran homelessness while improving access to timely, high-quality medical and employment support. There is no world where reducing benefits and support for veterans to save money will be tolerated by me. We did our duty and the American government must do its duty to provide lifetime care for our sacrifices.
Foreign Policy
I spent 22 years in the United States Army and served four combat tours. I know that American leadership requires both strength and restraint.
The United States must defend our country, stand with our allies, uphold democracy and human rights, and pursue diplomacy wherever possible. Military force should never be used without lawful authority, clear objectives, and an honest plan for what comes next. Congress must reclaim its constitutional responsibility for decisions of war and peace, because service members and their families should never pay the price for political recklessness.
Israel and Palestine
Israelis and Palestinians have the same fundamental rights: to live in safety, raise their families in peace, and determine their own futures.
Hamas is a terrorist organization. The murder of civilians, violence, and hostage-taking on October 7 were atrocities and war crimes. The hostages must be released, and Israel has a right to protect its people.
Credible evidence also shows that the Israeli government has committed war crimes in Gaza, including restricting food, water, medicine, and humanitarian assistance to civilians. Holding a government accountable is not the same as opposing Israel’s existence, just as defending Palestinian civilians is not the same as supporting Hamas.
The killing must end, humanitarian aid must reach civilians, and the United States must ensure that our military assistance is used in accordance with American and international law. I support the Stop the Bombs Act, the West Bank Violence Prevention Act, and enforcement of the Leahy Law. America should use its influence to protect innocent people, secure the release of the hostages, and help create lasting peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians.
Ukraine
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is an attack on a sovereign democracy and a threat to the security of Europe and the United States. Ukraine and our NATO allies have stood with America, and we must stand with them.
I support continued military assistance to help Ukraine defend itself and a strong, united NATO capable of deterring further Russian aggression. We cannot reward Vladimir Putin by allowing him to redraw international borders through violence or dictate Ukraine’s future.
A lasting peace cannot be built by abandoning our allies or teaching authoritarian leaders that aggression succeeds.
Iran
The Iran War has been an unmitigated disaster in every way. Congress must immediately act to end this misbegotten venture, conduct real oversight, and demand answers and accountability for the Trump Administration's failures in executing it. I recognize that Iran’s regime is dangerous. It has supported terrorism, destabilized the region, and helped fuel violence around the world. I personally know fellow service members who lost their lives or limbs to Iranian backed militias and bombs in Iraq. America must protect our people and our allies, but that does not give any president unchecked authority to drag the country into another war. The War Powers Act is not a 60-day war-of-choice coupon.
Congress must exercise its constitutional war powers, demand clear objectives and accountability, and pursue serious diplomacy. This war has cost us lives, treasure, and international prestige and allies. We cannot gamble with American lives in an illegal, open-ended conflict without congressional authorization or a credible plan for what comes next.
Defense
The Department of Defense under Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth, and the Republican Congress is out of control and in constant turmoil and has led to our nation being in grave danger and our international reputation in shambles. I will act immediately to reign in the outrageous and illegal actions by Secretary Hegseth from his meddling in promotions, illegal religious infusion into the military, and hiring of unqualified propagandists for his personal promotion.
We must also act immediately to end the endless wars and illegal boat attacks started by Donald Trump and eagerly executed by Hegseth. Congress must do its Constitutional Duty to authorize funding and oversee the Department of Defense and national security agencies. In the midst of a disastrous war our military has been left with constant turnover and lack of leadership at the highest levels dangerously undermining our safety and future as a nation that will do generational harm to our national security.
Our service members and their families are paying the price for this incompetence and malfeasance. They are seeing their benefits eroded, constant deployments, and uncertainty causing constant upheaval in their lives as Congress ignores their pleas. I will not. It is far past time for aggressive intervention by Congress in the disastrous management of the Department of Defense.