Politics is Personal
It’s something I say often: politics is personal. It’s not an abstract thing, but, rather, policies have an effect on every aspect of our lives. I’ve been beyond angry about the mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic from the beginning. As a healthcare professional, I’ve witnessed needless suffering and endured unnecessary stress. I’ve watched as my coworkers have become increasingly exhausted and overwhelmed, my patients ill or worried, and have watched parents stressed from the impossible task of working from home and caring for their children. As a mother, I’ve struggled to juggle my work with facilitating virtual school, and I’ve felt ill equipped to help as my children feel more and more isolated and struggle academically. Last month, rather than just having my professional and campaign life invaded by the pandemic, the coronavirus entered my home.
It’s a deeper level of worrying when someone you love gets sick during a pandemic. Because we work in health care, we knew it was not likely a matter of “if,” but when — but planning for the worst while expecting the best still takes an emotional toll. My husband, Kirk, is an ER nurse. Last month, Kirk became one of the nearly 200,000 healthcare workers nationwide to be diagnosed with COVID-19. Mounting a congressional campaign as a working mother has been the challenge and privilege of my lifetime, none of which would have been possible without Kirk’s support and hard work. Yet, in the final stretch, we found ourselves worried, isolated, and, yes, angry that this pandemic still runs unchecked. The President has intentionally downplayed the truth about the virus, imperiling the health and safety of our nation. However, as trained nurses, we knew what steps to take to keep our children and our community safe.
Kirk packed his bags and moved into the camper parked in our barn to keep the rest of us safe from infection. I’m not at all eager to repeat those 14 days of isolation. My oldest child was so worried that she set up a Zoom to monitor how her dad was feeling. From inside the house, my kids lingered on every cough, and worried as my husband became extremely fatigued and achy. They missed hugging their dad, and, I did, too.
Abdicating leadership and leaving our frontline workers to deal with the mess is a betrayal. More than 900 healthcare workers in this country have died from COVID-19; Kirk could have all too easily been one of them. Nurses and physicians across the nation have been left to deal with the failures of our government to test, trace, and isolate those who have COVID-19. It didn’t have to happen this way. Health experts have known for decades we would face a pandemic at some point and plans had been in place, but when the Trump administration scrapped those plans, Congress stood back and did nothing to hold him accountable. We’ve watched as Washington prioritized pushing through a supreme court nominee rather than providing relief to the families across the country who are suffering right now.
Thanks to our adherence to CDC guidelines and immediate quarantining, no other member of my household contracted the virus. Contrast that to the more than two dozen cases in our own White House. The guidelines work when implemented faithfully.
I’d like to be clear about something here: my family and I are the lucky ones. Though my husband was out of work for the first few weeks of the pandemic, we have not lost our health insurance. The same cannot be said for more than 12 million American families. When my husband was paid a mere one-third of his salary via workers compensation while home with COVID, our savings kept us from missing payments on our bills. Many American families have little to no savings and live paycheck to paycheck. Though we worried about how he’d recover from the virus, my husband is doing well now. The same cannot be said for the nearly 2000 Arkansans who have died due to this virus.
Our leaders in the White House and in Congress have demonstrated over and over that they’re not up to this challenge. It is unconscionable that our elected officials have chosen to perpetuate falsehoods in the face of robust public health expertise. At best, their actions are irresponsible. In practice, they’ve proven deadly. The choice not to act, not to lead, has cost 230,000 Americans their lives.
This pandemic will also have long term consequences upon our healthcare workforce. Almost daily I see fellow healthcare workers leaving the hospital or clinic, retiring or switching careers at alarming rates. Maybe you won’t get COVID, but when you need care, the hospital may be full, and your nurses and doctors are exhausted and overworked. We are dying in this lack of leadership.
Competent, compassionate governance is what is needed to lift the dark cloud of COVID-19 from the American landscape and save lives and livelihoods. As a nurse for 24 years and a family nurse practitioner for 10, I’ve made a career out of caring. I love my family, and I love my community. However, after two decades in healthcare, I know that some problems cannot be fixed in the exam room.
I’d trust my colleagues on the issues over my opponent any day of the week. If elected, I’d become one of three nurses serving in Washington. I’m running for Congress because I believe no one should go broke because they get sick. This country is desperate for representatives who understand the careful calculus made every day by people across the country stretching a paycheck to cover prescriptions, food, and rent. Nurses are up to the task, my opponent is not. A brighter tomorrow is possible, and I pledge to fight for my husband, my family, my coworkers and colleagues, and my community with all my strength.
