I will always encourage and respect “precious votes.”

What does this mean?

 

I think you’ll agree your vote is sacred. So is everyone’s. Every vote is worthy of honor and respect. The right to choose one’s own leaders by voting is rare in the world today, and even more rare throughout history. So any time a citizen votes for anyone, I applaud.

 

It follows that every citizen should find it easy to vote and be confident their vote will count. Good government depends not only on everyone voting, but that those votes should be based on well-informed and sound judgment. Those are what I call especially “precious votes,” that is, votes worthy of you.

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Just as in a healthy democracy there should be no “automatic” candidates running unopposed in “safe” districts (this is why I am running), there should be no thoughtless or “automatic” votes. Here are some ways votes become thoughtless and automatic. Do you know anyone who votes like this?

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“I have always voted Republican (or Democratic) so I will again” (without examining what the party stands for today, which might not be what it used to be, and without looking carefully at which individual candidates might be your best representatives).

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“I’ll vote for any candidate who says he is pro-life” (without considering what being "fully pro-life" involves).

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“I’ll vote for any candidate who says he is pro-gun” (without pondering how to deal with the serious problems guns are involved in today).

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“I’ll vote for any candidate who says he is conservative (or even 'liberal').” (without considering how a mix of conservative and liberal moves have given us the lives we enjoy today and considering which are best for your future).

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“I’ll vote for any candidate who says he is against socialism" (or CRT or any other trigger word and I'll be happy to talk with anyone about what these words mean and whether they apply to anything going on in our society today).

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In sum, I will challenge all voters to use their precious vote thoughtfully, and then maybe “re-think” their votes, base them on well-informed and sound judgment, and make them “especially precious.” 

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I am confident that when you do that you will find me a strong candidate and a worthy representative of you. But even if you then vote for someone else, I'll be pleased that you made your vote thoughtful and considered it precious.

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