Tim Shepard in Survey of 2021 Senate campaign websites
On Abortion:
Allow citizens to make choices over their own bodies
Government has no role in dictating anyone's anatomical or biological decisions. When the government steps in to override the choice of not only individuals, but the advice of a person's family, certified medical care providers, and mental health
therapists, it negates the very principles on which its legitimacy to govern is founded. We restore democracy by respecting the sanctity of the individual, allowing citizens to make choices over their own bodies that only they should make.
Source: 2021 MO Senate campaign website TShepard.com
Sep 2, 2021
On Civil Rights:
Is LGBTQ and married to love of his life
YES, WE CAN WIN. There are cynics who think being LGBTQ and married to the love of your life is a political death sentence. Missouri deserves better than that. Let's bring healthcare, education, and infrastructure back to Missouri.
And let's prove to the world that ending racism and homophobia is possible. Let's say to the world 200 years after the Missouri Compromise, that we are now a #MissouriUnCompromised.
Source: 2021 MO Senate campaign website TShepard.com
Sep 2, 2021
On Civil Rights:
Make schools & jobs safe and accommodating for minorities
There are still significant levels of discrimination at all levels of government for members of our minority communities, whether a racial/cultural one or a function of gender identity or sexual orientation. We have to be the voice in policy
discussions and program funding in order to make schools, workplaces, and the community safe and accommodating for these minorities. In addition, there must be a concerted effort to bring them into the policy discussions at every step of the process.
Source: 2021 MO Senate campaign website TShepard.com
Sep 2, 2021
On Corporations:
Break up companies that are "too big to fail"
Break up companies that are "too big to fail." Some of our most successful companies have become too big and the operation of the free market had to be suspended to prevent them from imploding the entire economy. Excessive consolidation has concentrated
market power in too few people's hands. To ensure small and medium-sized businesses are able to launch and grow across all sectors of our economy, we need to hold our largest companies accountable.
Source: 2021 MO Senate campaign website TShepard.com
Sep 2, 2021
On Crime:
We must end the school to prison pipeline
We must end the school to prison pipeline. We can do this by promoting equity, and increasing participation in our representative democracy. There are too many broken laws that regularly feed children into the prison system. This inhumane treatment
disproportionately forces our most vulnerable citizens into a cycle of oppressive poverty rather then addressing the underlying problems that lead to the poverty. In order to restore democracy, we need to fix our most un-democratic systems and laws.
Tim believes it's always the right time to do what's right. When he learned about the injustices of the pre-school to prison pipeline, he didn't listen to his superiors tell him it's the wrong time to act. He jumped into action as the most vocal
advocate for divestment from for-profit prisons at a $630 billion asset management firm. In the face of being de-platformed and having his livelihood and career threatened, Tim stood his ground. It worked, they no longer trade for-profit prisons.
Source: 2021 MO Senate campaign website TShepard.com
Sep 2, 2021
On Drugs:
Legalizing marijuana lets us focus on more serious issues
Criminalizing marijuana has been a major contributing factor to mass incarceration. It's been a weapon of the class war against the poor and communities of color. It has funded the rise of the dangerous drug cartels as they battled for market share.
Legalizing marijuana will allow us to combat more serious issues like dangerous drugs and sex trafficking while raising billions of dollars in new tax revenue. This ensures that we are not disenfranchising healthy and productive members of society.
Source: 2021 MO Senate campaign website TShepard.com
Sep 2, 2021
On Education:
We need major investment to increase education specialists
The need for trained professional counselors and special needs educators has been made apparent over the past few decades. The funding needed to staff these positions has not only stagnated but in many cases has actually shrunk.
We need to make major investments to bring staffing levels of specialists up to research-justified levels. Anything less is selling Americans short.
Source: 2021 MO Senate campaign website TShepard.com
Sep 2, 2021
On Education:
Increase support, opportunities for vocational training
We need to collaborate with trade unions, manufacturing associations, and similar, to bring them into schools and to bring students to the worksites through things like facility tours and subsidized internships. To create the level of talent
that can keep up with the continually-evolving nature of work, it is imperative that we build a stronger scholarship program for trade schools, and fund training facilities that rival the ability and appeal of even the average college-based programs.
Source: 2021 MO Senate campaign website TShepard.com
Sep 2, 2021
On Energy & Oil:
Incentivize development and growth of green economy
In order to protect our natural resources and maintain healthy ecosystems which sustain an ever-growing population, we must push for programs that create career training and support for workers in carbon and methane intensive sectors to transition
to good, union jobs in green industries. We must also invest publicly to incentivize the development and growth of new and existing sectors in a green economy to build the world for the 21st century and beyond
Given the levels of greenhouse gas emissions still being poured into the atmosphere, we must work to reduce our own emissions by at least 40%, as well as working closely with other countries to provide economic support
for every nation to ensure they can enjoy the comforts of modernity in a sustainable way. This includes efforts to drive the expansion of low- and zero-emissions energy production.
Source: 2021 MO Senate campaign website TShepard.com
Sep 2, 2021
On Free Trade:
Protectionism limits economic opportunities at home
Protectionism limits economic opportunities at home and makes us less secure. We need to reform capitalism and embrace fair and free trade to ensure American farmers and producers are able to participate and gain market share in the global economy.
It's also an important tool in our arsenal against global bad players, bringing democracy-loving countries into our economic orbit and building on the integration model that has ensured global peace for the latter half of the 20th century.
Source: 2021 MO Senate campaign website TShepard.com
Sep 2, 2021
On Government Reform:
In order to restore democracy, we all must be represented
We need to make it easier for every American to vote. Many people aren't represented because of misguided and even hostile systems that disenfranchise poor Americans. The result has been to suppress many people's ability to vote,
which results in significant losses to the community and the economy. In order to restore democracy, we all must be represented.
Source: 2021 MO Senate campaign website TShepard.com
Sep 2, 2021
On Government Reform:
We need to fix our campaign finance system
To restore democracy, we need to fix our campaign finance system. Contribution limits at the PAC and Super-PAC level are critical to ensure that the voice of ordinary Americans has equal weight with millionaires and billionaires.
This way, no matter what level of wealth you've achieved, you're guaranteed equal representation.
Source: 2021 MO Senate campaign website TShepard.com
Sep 2, 2021
On Health Care:
We should guarantee healthcare for every American
Healthcare is a human right, not a commodity that can be driven by economic competition to be priced out of reach for over 30 million people in the United States. In the wealthiest nation on earth, we owe it to ourselves to guarantee healthcare for
every American. Medicare for All will allow people to seek employment opportunities that best fit with their talents and interests, instead of being trapped in a particular job based on the ability to afford health care.
Source: 2021 MO Senate campaign website TShepard.com
Sep 2, 2021
On Jobs:
Accountability for sexism, sexual harassment in workplace
Women deserve fairness, ranging from equal pay and parental leave to their access to healthcare, educational opportunities, and representation in leadership roles. That means supporting stronger accountability for institutionalized sexism, sexual
harassment, and discriminatory workplace environments. It also means recognition and support for women who may have roles outside the traditional workplace, whether that is their disproportionate roles as caregivers or the criminalization of sex work.
Source: 2021 MO Senate campaign website TShepard.com
Sep 2, 2021
On Jobs:
Make minimum wage, a living wage
Make minimum wage, a living wage. The bottom quartile of income earners in our country has not shared in the upside of wealth creation for decades. We need to revisit policies that have caused this inequality and fight to make sure
the economic growth benefits everyone who shared in creating and sustaining that growth and to do this across all income levels.
Source: 2021 MO Senate campaign website TShepard.com
Sep 2, 2021
On Jobs:
Support stronger union and labor regulations
We must fight so-called "right to work" types of legislation that continue to claw away at working people's rights. When capital (investors) divorces itself from labor (workers), the whole paradigm shifts away from capitalism and one step closer
to feudalism. We need to support stronger union and labor regulations that recognize workers' rights and that protect their ability for collective bargaining.
Source: 2021 MO Senate campaign website TShepard.com
Sep 2, 2021
On Principles & Values:
Work from the bottom up, instead of top-down
For too long we have had leadership that continues to embrace a top-down model of management. Our goals are to undo that. Expand our talent pool. Put human rights back in their place as the guiding principles that reign in the rampant drive
for profits and make successful capitalism possible. To work from the bottom up, instead of top-down. To reconnect our leaders and their communities. And to unfold the as-yet-unfulfilled potential still inherent in our America.
Source: 2021 MO Senate campaign website TShepard.com
Sep 2, 2021
On Principles & Values:
We will continue to fight the virus and we will pray
We are all deeply impacted by the tragedy of those lost to COVID-19. In moments when we confront the joy that has been prematurely taken out of our world, we have the chance to lean into our faith in each other. The president conveyed that in order to
heal, we must remember those we have lost. We will mourn them and the lives they were not finished living. In their names we will continue to persevere and move forward through this pandemic. We will continue to fight the virus and we will pray.
Source: 2021 MO Senate campaign website TShepard.com
Sep 2, 2021
On Tax Reform:
Those at the top need to pay their fair share
Those at the top need to pay their fair share. Warren Buffett is famously on record saying it's morally incomprehensible that he pays a lower percentage of his income than his secretary. That's also true of large corporations
who benefit from government-funded infrastructure and social welfare programs, but too often pay $0 in actual taxes to help shoulder their part of the load.
Source: 2021 MO Senate campaign website TShepard.com
Sep 2, 2021
Page last updated: Nov 17, 2021