We live in a "childcare desert" here in Hancock County (and I suspect this is true across much of rural Maine). I want to look at ways to increase access to affordable childcare while I am in the legislature.

We need to look at ways to increase access to affordable housing and the long term rental market. Along with affordable childcare, affordable housing only stands to benefit our district's businesses, schools, hospital, and other sectors of our economy.

In recent years, this area of the county has seen the closures of 2 very important nursing homes (Penobscot and Deer Isle) in large part due to the lack of affordable housing for the staff of those facilities. With the most elderly population in the US, these closures have been devastating for the surrounding communities.

We need to improve access to recovery and rehabilitation services and services for our constituents who are dealing with mental health issues.

The last couple decades have brought many hundreds of thousands of deaths due to overdose and have led to millions of folks needing better access to rehabilitation and recovery services across the US. This district has been deeply impacted by the opioid crisis. We need to increase availability of life saving overdose reversal drugs like Narcan and Naloxone.

As a teacher and a school board member, I am keenly aware of the benefits provided by quality public education. Our district has excellent schools and some amazing teachers! In the legislature, I will work to ensure that high quality public education is available to all students in the district and across the state.