As candidates, we all have different platforms, but this is a list of items that all TEAM Members agreed are central to their campaigns. When you support The TEAM, you can be assured that you're supporting these issues:
Health Care
We believe that every person has the right to quality, affordable, and accessible health care, no matter their age, gender, zip code, or race.
We support expanding Comprehensive Community Health Centers as a means to providing comprehensive care in our rural areas.
We support moving this country to universal health care.
We support a deliberate and intentional funding for a mental health care program focused on the unique challenges that folks in rural areas experience.
We support expanding Medicaid in Missouri.
For our military families, we support encouraging rural health care professionals to cover those who use TriCare for insurance purposes, and we support incentivizing health care professionals to accept military dependent patients.
We support the decision made by Missouri voters in 2018 regarding Medical Marijuana, and support physicians who, when selecting the best treatment for their patient, prescribe medical marijuana, including to veteran patients with PTSD.
For mental health care and drug addiction treatment, we support establishing drug courts, developing new treatment sites that provide long-term addiction services that treat the addict as well as the family, and providing job training and support for those who stay clean and sober.
Education
Students in our rural areas deserve equal access to educational opportunities. We support fully funding our public schools so that our schools are not forced to resort to four-day-a-week school session.
We support increased pay and fully funded pensions for our educators.
We support the creation of a system where we cover students’ tuition in exchange for a four-year commitment to teach in our rural public school system.
We support the further creation of dual-credit programs between high-schools and colleges. This can include low-cost transfer programs between two-year institutions and four-year institutions.
We support funding to promote and encourage students to pursue trade schools and union apprenticeships.
We support a program that provides student loan forgiveness for college and graduate tuition for those students who graduate with Bachelors or Masters degrees in Psychology, Counseling, Social Work and similar programs after they complete service for four years in an impoverished area of our state.
We support a Student Loan Forgiveness Program for physicians, dentists, and other allied health care professionals who serve four years in Federally Qualified Health Centers or other federally approved sites.
We support investments in on-base military public school system, many of which are in need of significant investment.
Agriculture
We support Country of Origin labeling. Cattle and pork producers should not have their prices driven down to protect foreign protein producers, and customers should know what they are buying at the grocery store.
We must ensure that local communities can exercise control over that community. If a locality has regulations requiring stricter standards for CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) or restricting their presence altogether, those decisions should not be usurped by legislators in Jefferson City.
We must provide support to our row crop producers. The combination of COVID-19 and our trade policies are causing farmers to stay under water.
We support the development of a plan for the next national/global crisis which will keep farmers producing and support transportation of food to areas where there is food insecurity.
The Trump Administration has effectively limited corn producers’ access to the ethanol market. We need to ensure that these markets stay open and do not become collateral damage in the government’s pursuit to make oil companies wealthier.
Climate Change
We support a national adaptation policy that includes investment in infrastructure and provides plans on flood mitigation efforts and sustainable farming.
We support coordination and discussion between our farmers and agricultural community and our environmental community.
Economic Recovery
We commit to bringing jobs back to rural Missouri by investing in schools, infrastructure, hospitals, and the type of community building that is necessary to retain and to attract folks to rural Missouri.
Rent is too high in most parts of rural Missouri. We commit to fighting for affordable housing options across the state. We further commit to fighting for programs that will help homeless veterans secure safe and stable housing, as well as fighting for on-base military housing reforms that secure safe barracks and family housing, free from mold and pest infestations.
We commit to working to make sure every single person in Missouri has access to the Internet.
We commit to doing our part to end food deserts in Missouri. Many folks in rural Missouri live in food deserts, while depending on the county anywhere from ⅓ to ½ of citizens are food insecure. We need to work with local communities to attract grocers and to leverage relationships with local farmers to help end the shortage of food in our communities.
We support funding the USPS and believe the requirement of pre-funding retirement benefits requires reform. We oppose any attempt to privatize the postal service.
Equality
Discrimination is not a Missouri value. We support the EQUALITY Act and MONA.
We oppose conversion therapy centers and banning transgender patriots from serving in the US military.
Reproductive Rights & Gender Parity
We support the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.
We stand in opposition to Missouri’s overly restrictive abortion law that forces rape and incest survivors into pregnancy. We support a person’s right to choose what happens to their own bodies in accordance with the privacy holding in Roe v. Wade and free of government overreach.
We support 18 weeks of paid parental leave.
Guns
We support the 2nd Amendment.
We support universal background checks on sales and support ensuring our kids can attend safe schools. We oppose all acts of domestic terrorism and call for the creation of a Domestic Terrorism Task Force at the federal and state levels so that law enforcement has the tools to identify and mitigate terrorism on American soil.
We support laws that keep guns out of the hands of abusers who are convicted of domestic violence charges.
Corruption
We support the will of Missouri Voters and CLEAN MO, and we oppose the work of the Republican legislature to overturn a duly passed constitutional amendment.
We support the reversal of the Citizens United decision and are committed to rooting out dark money in politics. We do not take money from corporate PACs or lobbyists.
We oppose efforts made to suppress the vote. We believe voters should have access to vote-by-mail in the 2020 election.
We support same day registration.
We support the ability of voters to request an absentee ballot due to COVID-19 without a notarization requirement.
Workers’ Rights & Labor
We support organized labor and oppose Right to Work for Less.
We support a federal minimum wage increase and support the minimum wage increase that Missouri voters passed in 2018.
We support fully-funded, low-cost daycares for civilian and military families. There are many childcare deserts in rural Missouri, and we are committed to ensuring that regardless of zip code, folks have a safe, high-quality option for childcare.
We support the development of a Universal Pre-K option so that all kids can get the start they need in life.