To go from hit-and-miss promotions barely taking women's fighting seriously to women headlining on a regular basis, high-level fights, it's an amazing thing to see. And it happened in what I felt was a pretty quick succession - though not fast enough - as far as professional sports go. It's really exciting.Collection: Sports
Strong alliances can thrive even where disagreements exist, but they cannot thrive where free and open communication is shut down.Collection: Communication
Tribes don't need Congressmembers' sympathy. What tribes need is for us to properly exercise our duty.Collection: Sympathy
The Kansas City VA is an essential resource for thousands of veterans across Kansas and Missouri, and it should be a place where they can receive medical care and services without fear of discrimination.
Native women and girls experience violence at far higher rates than any other female population in the country - a crisis that has devastated our communities and has been neglected for too long.
Every year, thousands of immigrants, asylum seekers and migrants assume great hardships to find safety in America. They choose our country because they see the United States as a land of justice, as a place of safety, and a beacon of hope.
I'll keep fighting every day to put pressure on Senate leaders to do what's right for Kansas.
Over the course of six amateur fights and two professional fights I learned a lot about how to get things done, how to pick myself up after disappointment, how to work through frustration and how to process moments of success.
I know that together we can and will help shape the future of this country for the better.
Having L.G.B.T. people sitting in the room while decisions are being made, and sitting there as peers, will shift the conversation.
I had always considered myself a martial artist who fights rather than a fighter who learned martial arts - although I probably flowed between those two categories over the years.
I have a talent for coming up with an analogy about martial arts training for everything. It's because training to improve your martial arts skills and training to step into a cage and fight another person teaches you a lot about... everything.
The first lesson in truly learning how to throw a punch is so frustrating, so frustrating. Especially if you fancy yourself athletic, that has to do with expectations and that is a different topic. The discomfort is realizing you thought you knew what throwing a punch meant and you just found out you don't even know how to stand.
Masks. Test Supplies. Ventilators. Gloves. Gowns. These are the most critical tools that our doctors, nurses and other first responders on the front line of the coronavirus pandemic need to continue their tireless work and save lives.
Kansans are resilient. We look out for one another - it's part of our Midwestern DNA.
I have always had faith in our community because I've seen us come together in so many ways before, even during the most difficult of times.
As a first-generation college student who worked my way through community college on to Cornell Law, having health insurance was not a top priority when I was starting out. I was buried in student loan debt and worried about simply making ends meet.
We know that Congress must find ways to reduce the cost of health insurance, including premiums and out-of-pocket costs, as well as to lower the actual costs of health care.
I want to make sure more people - not fewer - have access to quality, affordable health care.
It wasn't until I was injured at the gym - resulting in an emergency room visit and bill of $4,000 - that I realized the cost of forgoing health insurance. I was fine, but it took me more than a year to pay off that bill. That hurt worse than the injury itself.
Folks in our community have a lot of daily pressures to deal with. Worrying about the rising cost of lifesaving medications shouldn't be one of them. They deserve elected leaders who will fight for them, not special interests, and that is exactly what I will continue to do.
I ran for Congress to give Kansans a real voice in Washington, D.C. - not to let our priorities be drowned out by special interests.
If we're going to tackle the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs, along with so many other issues that are at the top of our community's mind, we need to reform our system and make it work for the people, not special interests and corporations.
Our asylum laws were written to protect victims fleeing persecution in their home countries. By limiting the scope of these laws and refusing to acknowledge gang violence or domestic violence as a valid reason to seek asylum, we are turning away women and children in grave danger.
Turning away women and children in grave danger; warehousing children in cages; deporting people whom we promised to protect - these actions are not reflective of the America I want to live in. They do not represent the values our country claims to hold.
If America is to be the land of opportunity and the beacon of hope that we claim, our immigration policies must be rooted in the fundamental principles of humanity. They must recognize, respect and honor the basic human rights of all people. And they must uphold the commitments we as a country have made to the international community.
When I do martial arts, I feel like its inward facing. Like, I'm improving myself, I'm getting healthier. It's almost like mindfulness for something.
Regardless if I made it or not, I really wanted women's MMA to be a real thing.
Just knowing you can get into a cage and do that is part of how the mindset of a fighter can be applied to pretty much any situation really.
You have to build relationships and learn what are the things that are of interest to other members of Congress, what are the things that folks have been taking a lead on for a really long time.
I think that it's a mistake to assume that because you're taking a position from somebody else who you might disagree with - or you know you disagree with on some things - to assume that you disagree with on everything and to not look at each policy on its own merits.
I didn't get to train because I was raised by a single mom. There were three of us and it was just too expensive to pay for me to do martial arts practice.
In terms of career options, I didn't think about MMA at all. I don't know if I really thought it was a career path for many women. For someone like me, even in my prime, it wasn't something I really considered.
The discipline it takes to train and push past discomfort and continually grow through both trial and error and critique are things that translate really well into the process of running for office.
It's funny that through learning how to physically fight, you also learn how to navigate really complicated and hard conversations with people.
Part of what we should be thinking about, whenever legislation is passed, is, 'how does this affect all varieties of communities?'
We have to get away from thinking that everyone coming to the United States is a threat.
We need to have something that is reworked, that deals with immigration, that is not thinking in terms of policing.
Let me clear, I do not support abolishing ICE.
It's clear Trump and the Republicans in Washington don't give a damn about anyone like me or anyone who doesn't think like them.
I've been put down, pushed aside, knocked out.
I think it's important that the lived experiences and the point of view of L.G.B.T. folks be included in conversations that affect all of us.
I wouldn't have run for office if I wasn't an optimistic person. I'm a realistic optimistic person, though.
We stood up and said that we welcome everyone, and that everyone deserves a shot to succeed.
When Ellen came out on national television, it was the first time I'd ever seen an LGBT woman represented in such a prominent way.
I remember religiously watching Ellen DeGeneres' show when I was growing up.
The Stonewall uprising was a day when brave individuals took to the streets to fight back against harassment and hate, and by doing so, helped to push the long history of LGBTQ activism into a nationwide movement.
We need to be following the direction of our public health professionals and the CDC.
I think Kansas City has one of the strongest entrepreneurial ecosystems in the country.
The Kansas City metro doesn't get recognized often enough for the innovative and often model-building work that's going on here.