I will:

• Pass legislation raising the minimum age for the purchase of firearms to 21
• Pass legislation allowing the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) to house a system of registration of firearms and firearm owners.
• Pass legislation to require a federal license for firearm ownership. License eligibility will be based on receipt of firearm safety training, and mental health screening.
• Close the "gun show" loophole nationwide, for all firearms purchases. All purchases of firearms will require a license, training, and updating of the federal registry.

Abortion is a word and an action that incites rage and division in our society, in the exact place that we need compassion, reason and understanding most of all.

It is inconceivable to me that a woman, facing what could only be imagined as the most excruciatingly difficult moment of her life, would be forced away from the advice of her trusted physician, her own beliefs, and the love of her family because of politics.

I am a Christian. As a Christian, I do not believe that I have been ordained with the power and authority to act as God, and decide whose life is more valuable; a woman's or her unborn child's. I do not believe that myself, nor anyone in Washington is qualified to speak on what will be said when we face judgment at the end of our own lives. But, I feel confident that kindness, grace, love and care towards those who face such an unimaginably difficult decision will be looked upon more favorably than shunning them, or eternally condemning them for a situation largely out of their own control.

I believe that abortion should be safe, legal and rare. I believe that it is a sadly necessary medical intervention, when the mother's life is endangered. I believe that kindness, grace and dignity should be afforded those who must endure such a procedure.

I believe that the government's role should be one of incentivizing birth control, providing free or low-cost prenatal care, and that adoption law should be strengthened. I believe we should do everything to ensure the safest environment possible for those children who are brought into this world to parents who want to provide them with a better path forward.

We are all created equal, with a body, a spirit, and a finite amount of time on this Earth.

You have the right to be who you were born to be.

You have the right to love who you feel drawn to love.

You have the right to spend your life with the one you love in a consensual civil marriage, with all of the privileges and benefits that marriage provides.

You have the right to do all of those things safely, under protection of law.

I will protect your rights to live in equality and harmony with all of our fellow Americans.

We are all made of the same flesh and bones, and we all deserve our chance at happiness.

There is no reason, at all, why Medicare should not be opened up as a public option for all Americans to choose from. Study after study has shown that the efficiency and cost-savings of Medicare vs. private insurance provides a better financial outcome for subscribers.

I do however fully support the ability of Americans to opt-in to a private or faith-based insurance plan, if they feel that is a better fit for their finances, their families, and their needs. 

The freedom to choose between solutions in an open marketplace can only benefit Americans.

Marijuana should have been legalized in Kentucky years ago, and should be legal today.

The criminalization of marijuana has only served to pack our jails, demolish the harmony of our communities, and steal the opportunities of so many of our neighbors, by robbing them of the chance at gainful employment, through the acquisition of a criminal record. And all of this has been done because of a plant. A plant with demonstrable medical application, but a dearth of research due to a decades long mis-categorization as a Schedule I substance. A weed with negative impacts no more harmful than legal intoxicants such as beer and liquor. 

Our current federal law still treats marijuana as a public menace, and still disproportionately impacts people of color throughout the Commonwealth and across the nation. I will introduce federal legislation of my own, or support any other reasonable legislation which will legalize the cultivation, production, research, use and possession of marijuana and its derivatives. 

Our Police Departments are critical for maintaining law and order throughout the Commonwealth.

I do not support defunding our Police departments.

I do support common-sense reform in Police training and policies. This would include legislation preventing the use of federally-allocated funds for police departments to acquire vehicles designed for the battlefields of war. This would also include making allocations of federal funds to enable mental health professionals to accompany responding officers on designated call responses. This would include an end, by federal legislation, of the use of "no-knock" warrants. 

I believe the duty of our Police officers is to protect and serve our communities. I believe in providing the Police all the means necessary to carry out that duty. I believe that protection can be carried out, in many cases, much more effectively with words than at the barrel of a gun.

The time to trust corporations to simply do the right thing has come to an end.

Right now, in Kentucky and across the nation, corporations are vacuuming up huge swathes of our available housing inventory, massively inflating prices, and converting what was conventional single-family home stock for purchase into rental properties.

This is a clear and present danger to our communities, our freedom, and our way of life as Americans. Home ownership is the cornerstone of our American Dream, and today, far too many Kentuckians are priced out of the market.

I would support legislation tailored to severely limit the number of single-family properties that could be acquired by a corporate entity. I would ensure that there are no loopholes available which would allow the creation of shadow companies to sidestep any such regulations. I would favor legislation instituting punitive taxation on the profits of those corporations which would seek to continue to destroy the foundation of our livelihood.

Houses are meant for families to turn into homes, not for corporations to turn into profit.