I've spent the last four years working to support small businesses, rural economic development, farmers, and entrepreneurs.

Being an entrepreneur, running and operating a farm or small business... it's hard! There's no other way to say it. I truly believe that owning a small business is one of the bravest things someone can do. It takes everything you have. Passion, belief, time, energy, money. Everything.

Now, that's not exactly breaking news. The State has a lot of programs designed to support small businesses because they are the life blood of our communities. The problem is it takes cutting through a jungle of red tape to access any of them. And even if you do, chances are it'll take too long for that money to get to you to even make a difference.

I'll support our farmers and small businesses by:

• Cutting through the bureaucracy. Small business owners and farmers don't have the time to deal with mountain of paperwork to start a business, or access funding. We need to streamline our system and make it faster and easier for business owners to access state funding and programs.

• Championing workforce development. We need to invest in our workforce. Providing job and skills training programs helps our workers earn higher wages and creates a pipeline of skilled employees for our businesses.

• Centering Local. We see time and again these huge announcements of millions of dollars in economic development projects for our communities, but how often do we actually feel that impact? Our state programs should be focused on driving real results to our communities, not press releases and ribbon cuttings.