I won’t be a Democratic or Republican senator

A few months ago, I had a conversation with an Arizonan named Ofelia. We spoke over Zoom – as so many conversations happen these days – with her at her kitchen table in Mesa and me in my house in Tucson.

Ofelia is a senior on a fixed income, and she shared with me how the rising cost of prescription drugs was making it hard for her to get by.

Her son had a disability from an injury, and she was struggling to afford the cost of their prescriptions and her other weekly expenses — like groceries.

As we get close to Election Day, I think about Arizonans like Ofelia, and how badly we need independent leadership in Washington to tackle the issues we’re facing.

I bring a different set of experiences as a combat pilot, engineer and astronaut. I have spent my life using data and science to solve problems and accomplish difficult missions. That’s the experience I can bring to the Senate to work for Arizona.

So many Arizonans are losing sleep because they can’t afford their health care, because they aren’t working during this pandemic, because their kids are struggling with virtual learning. But looking at the response from Washington, you wouldn’t know it.

It’s been six months since the Senate passed the last COVID-19 relief package, and since then, they have gone on vacation four times.

The truth is that we’ve got a public health crisis, which spurred an economic crisis, and both have been made worse by a crisis of leadership.

Cases are rising in Arizona and across the country for the third time, and Arizonans are still asking: what’s the plan?

First, we’ve got to deal with the crisis in front of us by controlling the spread of the virus. That requires a national strategy with more testing and contact tracing, and that works with states to ensure that everyone follows public health guidance like wearing masks and social distancing.

This pandemic has pushed our health care system to the brink, and it’s critical that we lower the cost of health care for Arizonans and defend protections for those with preexisting conditions. When getting the novel coronavirus could mean a lifetime with a preexisting condition, these protections have never been more important.

Yet Republican leaders in Arizona are suing to eliminate these protections in a lawsuit that the U.S. Supreme Court could consider just days after the election. This shows just how wrong Washington’s priorities are. So does Sen. Mitch McConnell’s backroom deals to block additional COVID-19 relief.

Countless small businesses in Arizona are struggling to keep their doors open, and the hundreds of thousands of Arizonans who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own and are trying to get by on just $240 per week.

A strong economic recovery depends on protecting jobs and keeping families afloat, and then creating the jobs of the future and preparing Arizonans for them.

That means focusing on science and technology, extending the Investment Tax Credit for wind and solar projects, and investing in STEM education and job training to get young Arizonans the skills they need, whether they’re headed to college or not.

And we have to do all this while protecting the Social Security and Medicare benefits that seniors have earned over a lifetime of hard work.

A few weeks after we spoke, Ofelia’s son passed away from the coronavirus. This has been a tough year for so many Arizonans.

Here’s the thing: As a country, we are really good at solving tough problems. We’ve done it before. But we won’t get there by stoking division. We’ve got to come together.

Partisan politics made this crisis worse than it should have been, and partisan politicians and their endless false attack ads are not going to lead us out of it.

What Arizona needs is independent leadership focusing on solving these hard problems. I’m not taking a dime of corporate PAC money, so Arizonans will know that I answer to them.

If elected, I’m not going to be a Democratic senator or a Republican senator. I’ll be Ofelia’s senator. I’ll be your senator. I’ll be a senator for Arizona.