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.
Military family experience
- As the spouse of a former active duty service member and now a Disabled American Veteran (DAV) spouse, I appreciate the chance to share insight into what will be helpful in these critical areas. It is my hope to serve the veterans' community once elected and use my personal lived experience to guide policy in these key areas.
Government shutdown and cooperation
- I oppose a government shutdown in 2027.
- Congress should never be permitted to use the paychecks of our service members as leverage in a political standoff. If the men and women defending this nation are required to report for duty, Congress should be required to report for duty too.
- I support permanent safeguards to prevent shutdown politics. When funding for our service members is at risk, Congress should not be permitted to recess until a solution is reached. Procedural roadblocks, including the filibuster, should not be allowed to prevent legislation necessary to ensure our troops are paid.
- Members of Congress should never receive their paychecks while our service members go unpaid. If a shutdown causes military pay to stop, congressional pay should immediately be withheld, and Congress should remain in session until the problem is resolved.
- Government must prioritize its most fundamental responsibilities: protecting the American people, defending our Constitution, and safeguarding the sovereignty of our nation. Before Washington protects bloated bureaucracy, it must protect and pay the Americans who put their lives on the line for our country.
- No congressional paycheck before a service member's paycheck. No recess while our troops go unpaid. No using America's military families as political leverage.
Quality of life
- Our service members and their families make extraordinary sacrifices to secure our sovereign nation. Supporting them should be a national commitment, not simply a military responsibility.
- Active-duty pay should increase every year and better reflect the cost of living at a service member’s duty location. Military families should not struggle to afford housing, childcare, transportation or basic necessities because they were ordered to serve in an expensive part of the country.
- Healthcare should provide greater choice for active duty service members, military families and veterans. We need more community care options and less red tape. When appropriate, service members should be able to receive care in their communities without navigating layers of bureaucracy or worrying about whether an unexpected medical bill will become their financial responsibility.
- Military spouse employment matters too. Frequent moves can interrupt careers, licensing and education. Spouse hiring preferences, portable professional credentials and employment opportunities around military installations help strengthen the entire family. Morale, unit cohesion and the feeling of belonging to something greater than yourself are essential to the mission. Securing our nation is a group effort, and military families are part of that effort.
- We should also give military parents greater educational flexibility. That means expanding school choice, supporting homeschooling and learning pods, improving childcare options, and creating opportunities for cultural and educational exchange, including where appropriate through lawful exchange-visitor programs. Military children often experience different states, countries, schools and cultures. Our policies should recognize that unique experience rather than forcing every family into the same educational model.
- I understand this personally. As a former active-duty military spouse, I know the nuances of how frequently moving affects a service member and the entire family. I am not even 40, and I have moved about 20 times in my life.
- After a while, moving every few years almost becomes normal. For our family, staying somewhere longer than two years could actually begin to feel unusual, but every move still meant packing up a family, finding another home, navigating new schools, making new friends and rebuilding a community. Military families make those sacrifices again and again in service to this country.
- We should provide stronger financial assistance with the costs associated with military moves, rental deposits and eventual homeownership. And when service ends, we should help families transition into permanent, stable housing. After spending years living where the military tells you to live, many veterans and military families understandably value something remarkably simple: the freedom to decide where home will finally be and put down roots there.
- Those who spend their careers protecting America's security deserve the opportunity to build security for their own families.
Veterans’ care and healthcare choice
- I believe the Department of Veterans Affairs should concentrate its resources on the things that are uniquely connected to military service and that the VA is uniquely positioned to understand.
- Mental health, suicide prevention, military trauma, transition from active duty, disability support, veteran community programs and bringing veterans together should be at the heart of that mission. The effects of military service, both visible and invisible, can remain long after someone takes off the uniform.
- For routine healthcare, hospitalization, dental care and many medical specialties, I support dramatically expanding veterans' freedom to choose community providers.
- In many parts of America, a community hospital or specialist may be closer, more accessible or offer services that better fit a veteran's needs. Veterans should not have to wait weeks for an appointment or travel hours simply because the government operates a facility somewhere else.
- I would work toward a system where an eligible veteran could present a VA identification card at a participating hospital, clinic, specialist or dentist. The provider could verify eligibility through a national VA system and submit the covered claim directly for processing. Veterans should not have to obtain a new VA referral simply to exercise their healthcare benefits.
- This is not about abandoning the VA. It is about defining what the VA should do exceptionally well.
- The VA should become America's center of excellence for veteran mental health, suicide prevention, service-connected conditions, rehabilitation, transition services and veteran community. For healthcare that can be efficiently provided by America's existing hospitals and medical professionals, veterans should have a meaningful choice.
A Successful Transition Begins Before Discharge
- Leaving military service should come with an individualized transition plan addressing three fundamentals: housing, employment and support.
- A service member should know where his or her family is going to live, what employment or educational opportunities are available, what benefits they qualify for and who they can contact when something goes wrong.
- For veterans with significant service connected disabilities, I support assigning a Veteran Success Manager who helps coordinate housing, employment, healthcare, benefits, financial planning and family support needs. Instead of sending a disabled veteran from office to office, there should be one person responsible for helping that veteran successfully navigate the transition.
- Transition assistance should also emphasize transferable trades and professional credentials, entrepreneurship and small-business assistance, individualized career counseling and financial education.
- After years of being told where to live and when to move, some veterans also want to return to their families and support networks. Disability can make proximity to parents, siblings, adult children and other caregivers especially important. Our housing and transition policies should recognize that reality.
No Veteran Homeless on American Soil
- No veteran should be homeless in the country he or she volunteered to defend.
- We have made progress, but the problem has not disappeared. Veterans experiencing homelessness should be connected rapidly with stable housing and then receive coordinated employment, healthcare, disability, financial and community support designed to keep them housed. Our obligation cannot end when someone takes off the uniform.
- Veterans deserve the dignity of living freely and successfully in the nation they were willing to die defending. They deserve healthcare choice, a path to meaningful work, the opportunity to own a home or business, support for their families and, when disability changes the course of their lives, a country that remains committed to their success.
- Service should create opportunity after the uniform, not another bureaucracy to fight.
Family housing and accountability
- Military families deserve safe, affordable and comfortable housing wherever their service takes them.
- For active duty families living off base, installations should maintain updated rental and housing resources, while the military works with responsible local builders, developers and property managers to ensure adequate housing is available around major installations. Housing allowances should also respond more quickly to changing local conditions. I support reviewing and recalculating local housing and cost of living data at least every six months when markets are experiencing significant price changes rather than allowing military families to fall behind rapidly changing rents and living costs.
- For families living on base, scheduled maintenance and preventive inspections should be mandatory. Housing should be routinely checked for mold, water intrusion, lead, electrical hazards, pests and other unsafe conditions. Every military family should have access to an easy-to-use online portal for reporting maintenance problems, tracking repairs and documenting unresolved issues.
- There should also be an independent reporting mechanism outside the housing contractor for service members and spouses who believe their housing is unsafe. Serious health and safety complaints should trigger inspections, firm repair deadlines and accountability for contractors that repeatedly fail military families.
From Military Service to Homeownership
- I also want to rethink how we help veterans establish permanent housing after service.
- VA backed loans have helped generations of veterans become homeowners, but I want to explore additional pathways for veterans who can afford a reasonable monthly housing payment yet struggle to qualify through conventional underwriting or have damaged credit.
- One option would be a federally administered veteran homeownership program in which the government finances or holds qualifying mortgages directly, allowing eligible veterans to build equity as they make payments. Rather than waiting until a veteran is deep in foreclosure proceedings, missed payments could trigger early financial counseling and intervention to determine whether the veteran is experiencing unemployment, disability, a family emergency or another temporary affordability crisis.
- I would also explore a VA rent to own housing option. Qualifying homes could be acquired through a carefully controlled federal program and leased to eligible veterans with part of their payments contributing toward eventual ownership. Strong property standards, transparent pricing and safeguards for taxpayers would be required.
- The goal should not simply be putting a roof over someone's head. It should be helping veterans achieve stability, ownership and equity.
- Military families spend years moving wherever their country needs them. When their service ends, we should make it easier for them to finally choose a community, put down roots and build something of their own.
ELECTION REFLECTIONS · IN THEIR OWN WORDS
Looking ahead to Election Day
Brief answers to DutyStation’s questions about hope, America’s future, unity, the next generation and a closing message. The earlier policy answers and their received date remain above.
Hope heading into the election
- The Americans I meet every day who still believe their voices matter and that meaningful change is possible.
Vision for America
- Liberty. Opportunity. Prosperity.
Bringing Americans together
- Our shared commitment to the Constitution, our freedoms, and the understanding that we are Americans first, regardless of political affiliation.
The next generation
- A freer, safer, more affordable America, where opportunity is earned, innovation thrives, and future generations can achieve more than their parents.
Closing message to voters
- Representation belongs to the people, not political parties, wealthy donors, or special interests. Regardless of the outcome, never surrender your voice or your right to demand better from those who serve you.