About this response & our editorial approach
About this candidate response
DutyStation contacts candidates to ask whether and how they support service members, military families and veterans, and invites them to share their thoughts and priorities. We share their replies here in the candidate’s or campaign’s own words, with minor formatting for readability and correction of obvious spelling mistakes.
No endorsement in either direction. Publishing a reply does not mean DutyStation endorses the candidate. Replying does not mean the candidate or campaign endorses DutyStation.
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Organized by topic. Email greetings and sign-offs are omitted; campaign contact details appear alongside.
Veterans’ care
- I have seen veterans' healthcare from the inside. I worked as a contract nurse at a VA hospital in Arizona around the time serious problems in the Phoenix VA healthcare system came to national attention.
- In 2014, federal investigations documented unacceptable delays in care, unofficial wait lists, manipulation of scheduling data, and failures in leadership and accountability. The VA Office of Inspector General ultimately found that veterans faced access barriers that adversely affected care quality and identified troubling lapses in follow-up, coordination, and continuity of care. Department of Veterans Affairs OIG
- At the same time, I was proud to work alongside dedicated nurses and healthcare professionals who cared deeply for the veterans they served. That distinction matters to me. System failures should never erase the extraordinary work people do within that system.
- I remember veterans living with COPD, missing limbs, lost eyesight, cancer, mental health challenges, and the lasting consequences of their military service. VA hospitals and nursing homes can also be lonely places. I watched nurses do what they do: provide skilled care while nurturing, listening, encouraging, and preserving dignity.
- If any population has a solemn commitment from this nation, it is the men and women who served it.
- Improving veterans' care requires timely access to medical and mental health services, accurate and efficient disability claims processing, strong transition assistance for service members returning to civilian life, and real accountability when systems fail. Performance metrics should never become more important than the veteran waiting for care.
- I also believe accountability must reach leadership. Frontline healthcare workers cannot be expected to repair systemic problems created above them. When failures are identified, they should be investigated transparently, corrected quickly, and followed by measurable oversight.
- Veterans should not have to fight the government they served to obtain the healthcare, benefits, and support they earned.
- One factual nuance: the OIG did not conclude that delayed care caused the widely reported 40 deaths. It found serious delays and care deficiencies, including cases involving deceased veterans, but said it could not conclusively establish that a lack of timely care caused those deaths. (Department of Veterans Affairs OIG)
- “It's always a good time to give back”
Family housing
- Military families should not have to fight for safe housing while a loved one serves our country.
- This issue is personal to me. Four of my siblings served in the military, and three made it a career. My younger sister deployed to the Persian Gulf at 26 during the Gulf War and received the Bronze Star. One of my brothers wrote for Stars and Stripes while stationed in the Netherlands.
- I will never forget the look on my mother's face when my younger sister deployed—proud yet frightened for her daughter. Military service affects the entire family.
- My work with veterans has extended beyond the bedside. During my public-health career, I was selected to serve as a liaison for the Department of Defense Gulf War Illness Project. That experience gave me another perspective on what can happen long after a service member comes home—the battle may be over, but the health consequences can continue for years.
- And there's an important historical connection: Gulf War Illness became an example of why veterans need systems capable of recognizing and responding to health effects that may not fit neatly into what was expected when they deployed.
- Today, many military family housing sites are operated through partnerships with private housing companies. However, privatization does not eliminate the government's responsibility to protect military families. Congress and the Department of Defense must demand transparency, enforce housing standards, inspect properties, and hold contractors accountable when they fail to meet those standards.
- Military families already have a statutory Tenant Bill of Rights that includes the right to housing meeting applicable health and environmental standards, working utilities and appliances, access to maintenance histories, and mechanisms for reporting unsafe conditions. Those rights must mean something in practice—not simply exist on paper. U.S. House of Representatives
- Recent federal oversight shows there is still work to do. Inspections, maintenance records, complaint resolution, and accountability for private contractors need to be reliable and transparent. When families report mold, pests, sewage, unsafe conditions, or serious maintenance problems, they should receive timely repairs and an independent avenue for resolving disputes. Government Accountability Office
- I also believe military families themselves need a meaningful voice in solutions. Service members, spouses, nurses, social workers, housing specialists, military leadership, and the families actually living in these homes should be at the same table.
- We ask about extraordinary things of military families. Safe, affordable, well-maintained housing should not be one more battle they have to fight!
- The housing problem isn't merely historical. In August 2026, GAO reported an estimated $285 billion maintenance backlog across DoD installations for FY2025. That's broader than family housing specifically, so I wouldn't present the entire figure as a military-housing backlog, but it provides important context about the scale of deferred maintenance across defense facilities. GAO Files
Quality of life and measuring results
- Military readiness is not only about equipment and training. It is also about whether service members and their families have the stability necessary to do their jobs and build a life.
- Having grown up with four siblings who served in the military, three of whom made it their careers, I saw that military service affects the entire family. Deployments, relocations, childcare, employment disruptions, and separation become family responsibilities as well as military responsibilities.
- Duty Pay and Healthcare: Compensation should reflect the real cost of living where service members are stationed, and healthcare must be timely and accessible for service members and their families. I would support stronger congressional oversight of how military compensation and cost-of-living allowances are calculated, particularly in high-cost and remote locations. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported in 2026 that DoD's process for determining cost-of-living allowances has weaknesses, including inconsistent consideration of location-specific expenses.
- Childcare: Childcare is military readiness infrastructure. DoD operates the nation's largest employer-sponsored childcare system, yet staffing shortages continue to contribute to long waiting lists. I would prioritize increasing childcare capacity, recruiting and retaining qualified childcare workers, and strengthening community-based childcare assistance when on-base care isn't available. Government Accountability Office
- Spouse Employment: A military spouse should not have to repeatedly sacrifice a career because the family receives new orders. Frequent moves can cause spouses to lose income, start over professionally, work below their qualifications, or leave the workforce altogether. I would support continued work on occupational-license portability, federal hiring opportunities, remote-work options where practical, and employment assistance that follows families from one duty station to the next. The Government Accountability Office has documented significant employment and career challenges associated with military moves.
- Frequent Moves: Some moves are unavoidable because military readiness comes first. But unnecessary moves impose financial and emotional costs on families. Where mission requirements allow, I would examine whether service members can remain at duty stations longer and whether families receive adequate relocation assistance when moves are necessary.
- Finally, I would insist on measuring results. Policy isn't successful because Congress passed it. It is successful when people's lives improve.
- I would look at childcare wait times, healthcare appointment delays, spouse employment and underemployment rates, out-of-pocket moving expenses, housing satisfaction, retention rates, and service member and family satisfaction. If those numbers aren't improving, Congress and DOD need to ask why and change course.
- People serving our country should not have to choose between military service and their families' well-being.
- DOD itself considers childcare important to mission readiness and retention, so calling childcare part of military readiness isn't just rhetoric. Government Accountability Office
- Measurement component fits naturally with my public-health background: identify the problem → intervene → collect data → determine whether the intervention worked → adjust. That's essentially the same framework I've worked with professionally