As someone who is adamantly pro-choice, I was horrified by the Indiana GOP’s 2022 abortion ban. As our next County Councilor, I will combat these extremist policies by working to rebuild the St. Joseph County Health Department and reinvest in women’s health programs related to maternal health, reproductive and more.

South Bend has faced rising crime and gun violence in recent years, in large part due to the extreme gun policies coming from our state government, such as permitless carry. While we can’t control what happens in Indianapolis, we can work to keep guns off our streets and invest in mental health services here in St. Joe County to keep our community safe.

The St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Department has been tragically underfunded, leading to a shortage of both patrol and jail officers. On day one, I will push to increase funding to our Sheriff’s Department so we can give our officers a much needed pay raise and add new officers to keep crime off the streets of St. Joe County.

The County Council must work to reduce rising homelessness. In addition to funding and maintaining shelters and other wraparound services in a responsible manner, we must also emphasize programs to promote home ownership and hold bad landlords accountable.

With the unprecedented amount of investment coming to St. Joseph County in the coming years, we must ensure the funds for these infrastructure projects are spent on local contractors and uses Responsible Bidding Ordinances (RBOs) to ensure our hard-earned tax dollars are spent creating jobs and economic opportunity in our local community.

As a military veteran, career member of the IBEW and current leadership officer in our local union, I have spent over two decades fighting for the working people of St. Joseph County. In addition to this experience, I have served on the South Bend Public Works & Property Vacation Committee Member and Plan Commission. These experiences have made me uniquely prepared to serve our community on the St. Joseph County Council.