I knocked a lot of doors this past year on my campaign and asked people what issues were most important to them. Here are some of the key takeaways from my time spent talking to people here in Texas: By and large, the #1 issue concerning voters this election year was the economy. People were focused on the high cost of groceries, gas, property taxes, and healthcare. Many blamed Biden (and consequently Kamala) for these high costs.

I had two research papers accepted today. TWO! And a third was accepted two weeks ago. I am thrilled these projects are going to see the light of day, but I need to be honest about how draining it has been to do so much work in my free time that I am no longer being paid to do. Academia left me in June 2020, yet I am still finishing out projects from my post-doc. In what other career are you expected to continue doing your old job — unpaid — for months and years after your last day at work? This is an abusive practice, & we need to stop normalizing it.

I am LIVID!!!!! I’m in South Texas visiting family right now and wanted to get tested as soon as I got here just to be safe. A full year into this pandemic and recent uptick in cases and deaths, yet there is *still* unequal access to resources and testing here!!!! I tried to stop in a CVS for a test, but they said that they were only accepting people with appointments and there are none available FOR THE NEXT TWO WEEKS!!! They suggested I go to an urgent care center instead.