Why I'm a Centrist
Being a centrist does not mean standing for nothing. It means standing for people over parties, rights over rhetoric, and results over outrage. I don’t believe Minnesota is helped by political extremes. I believe it is helped by clear principles, constitutional respect, and practical solutions that actually work. Two issues prove that more than any others: the Second Amendment and reproductive freedom.
THE SECOND AMENDMENT
I support the Second Amendment.
Law-abiding Minnesotans have the right to own firearms for hunting, sport, self-defense, and personal responsibility. That right is not a loophole — it is part of our Constitution and part of our culture.
I have never seen an inanimate object make a decision, form intent, or commit violence. Guns do not think. People do.
The real crisis in America is not mechanical — it is mental health, addiction, untreated trauma, and social breakdown. When those systems fail, violence rises. Blaming tools instead of fixing broken systems only lets the problem keep growing.
REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM
Before anyone — including politicians, judges, or neighbors — tries to decide whether a woman should be allowed to have an abortion, three questions have to be answered:
1) Are you the woman in question?
2) Are you her doctor?
3) Are you her God?
For almost everyone, the answer to all three is no.
And because the answer is no, it is not your decision — and it is not the government’s decision — whether or not abortion should be legal. That decision belongs to the woman, guided by her doctor, her conscience, and her faith.
Many people who call themselves conservatives say they want less government. But you do not get less government by turning the most personal, medical, and intimate decisions in a person’s life into a criminal matter. When politicians try to control pregnancy, they are not shrinking government — they are dragging it into doctors’ offices, hospital rooms, and family crises where it does not belong.
I also know that I do not know what a woman has been through. I do not know if she was raped, abused, or trapped in a situation no one else can see. I do not know the psychological or physical impact of being forced to carry a pregnancy conceived through violence or trauma. And because I do not know, I will not pretend that government knows better than the woman who has to live with the outcome.
This is not about being careless or indifferent. It is about being honest about the limits of government, the complexity of human life, and the damage that is done when power is used where it does not belong.