Personal freedom means your medical decisions, your identity, your private life, and your faith are yours—not Washington’s. Freedom only matters if you have the ability to live it.
My personal freedom framework begins with a principle as American as the Bill of Rights:
The only legitimate basis for government restriction of personal behavior is demonstrable harm to others.
Consensual choices made by adults should not be subject to government control. This is not a radical position – it is the foundational premise of a free society.
That principle establishes a floor, however, genuine liberty requires more than government leaving people alone.
A woman in rural Ohio with no access to healthcare,
a queer youth in a school that refuses to acknowledge their existence,
a man carrying a drug conviction for conduct now legal —
None of these people are free in any meaningful sense, even when no law directly prohibits their choices.
My freedom agenda addresses both dimensions:
- Government must not interfere with personal autonomy
- Government must actively create the conditions in which that autonomy can be exercised
My relationship with faith is personal and private. My policy positions are governed by the Constitution and conscience, not by any religious institution’s doctrine. I respect the faith of every Ohioan — and will defend with equal conviction the right of every Ohioan to live free from having anyone else’s faith imposed on them through law.
The Four Pillars
Pillar 1: Your Body, Your Choice
The most fundamental expression of personal freedom is sovereignty over one’s own body.
No government that claims to protect individual liberty can simultaneously claim authority over the most intimate medical decisions a person makes.
My bodily autonomy framework covers three connected domains:
- Reproductive rights
- End-of-life autonomy
- The full spectrum of personal medical decision-making
Medical decisions belong to patients and their doctors — not politicians.
Pillar 2: Who You Are. Who You Love.
Every Ohioan has the right to live as who they are, to love who they love, and to be treated with equal dignity under the law.
This is not a special right. It is the same right every other American enjoys, extended to people who have been denied it.
No Ohioan should face discrimination in:
- Employment
- Housing
- Education
- Public accommodations
I will support closing the remaining gaps in federal protections.
Pillar 3: None of Their Business
The organizing principle applies directly to privacy and personal conduct:
What you do that harms no one else is not the government’s concern.
This includes two areas where government overreach has been significant:
Digital Privacy and the Fourth Amendment
- Require warrants for access to digital communications, location data, and devices
- Regulate data brokers and prevent government from bypassing constitutional protections through commercial data purchases
- Establish oversight and transparency for surveillance technologies
- Reform surveillance authorities to align with Fourth Amendment protections
Drug Policy Reform
Ohio voters already legalized cannabis.
- Align federal law with state legalization
- Provide a clear path to expungement for past cannabis convictions
- Treat addiction as a public health condition, not a criminal issue
A criminal record for conduct that is now legal is not justice.
Pillar 4: Your Faith, Not Your Law
The First Amendment protects two equally important freedoms:
- The free exercise of religion
- Protection from government establishment of religion
Every American has the absolute right to practice their faith within their religious community.
That right ends where the public square begins.
When religious doctrine is encoded as civil law binding on people of all faiths and none, that constitutional balance is broken.
I will defend both sides of religious liberty:
- The right to believe and practice freely
- The right not to have another person’s beliefs imposed through law
This is not a position against religion. It is the foundation that protects religious freedom in a diverse society.
The Broader Connection
Personal freedom does not exist in isolation.
A person without healthcare access is not free to make medical decisions.
A person without economic stability is not free to make meaningful choices.
A person trapped by past convictions is not fully free to move forward.
My broader agenda — including healthcare, economic security, and housing — is designed to make freedom real, not just theoretical.
The Bottom Line
A free society does not control people’s personal lives.
It protects their right to make their own choices and ensures they have the ability to do so.
