STRONG WORKFORCE
People stay when they can build a life.
I've spent more than twenty-five years hiring, training, and trying to keep good people in western North Dakota. When wages, healthcare, housing, childcare, and education don't add up to a life someone can build here, they leave.
Not because they want to. Because the numbers don't work.
WHAT DOES A STRONG WORKFORCE ACTUALLY TAKE?
There isn't one workforce problem — and there won't be one workforce bill that fixes it. We need to grow our own talent, help employers compete, and make western North Dakota a place where working people can afford to build a life.
The best long-term workforce strategy is to grow our own. Connect education directly to real work through SWCTE, career exploration, job shadowing, internships and apprenticeships.
01 | GROW OUR OWN
02 | COMPETE ON THE WHOLE PACKAGE
Local employers can't always win a wage race with the oilfield — and they shouldn't have to. Pay matters, but so do healthcare, benefits, career development and quality of life.
03 | MAKE HOUSING ATTAINABLE
Reduce the cost of building. Improve the path to buying. We should review regulations that add costs without improving safety, while helping working families who can afford a mortgage but struggle to save a down payment.
04 | CHILDCARE IS WORKFORCE INFRASTRUCTURE
In parts of District 37, the first problem isn't affordability — it's availability. We need to increase childcare capacity, build on employer incentives that work, and make sure state programs actually reach the families and employers who need them.
MY COMMITMENT
I'll keep asking questions, listening to the people doing the work, and studying what works.
There won't be one workforce bill that fixes this. But I'll work with employers, educators, workers and communities to strengthen North Dakota's workforce — and make western North Dakota a place where working people can afford to build a life.