Who is Derrick Nowlin?
“Hi I’m Derrick Nowlin. I’m excited to be running to represent Southwest Springfield. I spent my formative years playing until the lights came on in the Oak Grove neighborhood. I graduated from Glendale High School and attended Missouri State University studying physics and engineering. I was lucky to be able to raise my kids here. Now, I watch my grandchild play in the same parks I did as a kid.
I spent twenty years of my life as a land surveyor working on many of the exciting changes in Springfield, including the 65 and James River Freeway interchange. For the last twelve years I’ve worked for a sign company in town doing in house engineering. I work with businesses and city governments to place signs across the country.
As your representative, I will fight for more affordable access to healthcare, safer roads and bridges for our families, and better funded schools for our children. I will be your representative who will fight for a better tomorrow.”
-Derrick
Ready to make calls? Click HERE. Want to know more? Scroll down to see where Derrick stands on the issues.
Healthcare
Healthcare costs are skyrocketing and our Republican-led legislature is doing nothing to stop it!
Having an affordable health care system is possible in Missouri. As your representative, I have a responsibility to our community to ensure our neighbors can afford their medications and doctors visits. We can work to lower prescription drug prices. We can fund the clinics in the state that offer free and low cost care to those most in need and help start new ones in areas where healthcare access is lacking.
Access to abortion is necessary healthcare. We must overturn Missouri’s “Heartbeat Bill“ and work to bring more OBGYN’s to Missouri so no area is without access to reproductive healthcare. We must also ensure that access to contraception is protected and education on how to avoid pregnancy and STIs is easily available to all Missourians.
Access to behavioral healthcare is vital for our state. We must work with already existing systems to make mental healthcare more accessible and inform more folks in our community of the ways those in need can get the help they require.
Education
When I was growing up, Missouri’s education system was a point of pride. Our teachers were paid well and our students received a great education. After more than two decades with a Republican supermajority our children are falling behind, our teachers are leaving the state for better pay and more opportunities, and our schools are cutting back to four days a week.
Our public schools are having to rely on less state funding and more on local tax hikes to make up the difference. Unfortunately, most places in Missouri can’t afford to foot that bill. It is the responsibility of the state legislature to show us where their priorities lie, and right now, we can be sure it is not with our children.
When I get to Jefferson City, I will be a strong advocate for changing the funding formula to ensure that the state pays its fair share and our children have the best access to public education any state can offer.
Jobs
Our community deserves a strong middle class with all the benefits one envisions from a good job. Earned paid time off and a livable wage are the most basic benefits we should expect when working full time. Workers are the backbone of our economy. We deserve to make a decent living and be able to take time off when our families need us most.
When unions are strong, we all thrive. Standing together as a collective, means more power for the working class to get what we deserve from the work we dedicate our lives to day in and day out. I will fight against any legislation that hampers the ability to join a union or a union’s ability to fight for its workers.
We need a representative who will protect the hard earned rights won by the labor movement. We need a representative that knows what it’s like to work a 9-5 job. We need a representative that understands what it’s like to step back from college to spend more time working to provide for their family. I am that representative. I will work hard to leave a better future for our children and grandchildren.
Infrastructure
My background is in fixing and updating the roads, bridges, and interchanges we drive everyday. We have neglected the systems that get us from point A to point B. Thanks to the Infrastructure, Investment, and Jobs Act, we have the best opportunity we have had in decades to fix the growing problems with our infrastructure systems and improve public transit. Not only should we use this investment to fix many of our transit systems, but we should also work to revamp our electrical supply methods with more green technology and create a program to help test and replace failing clean water framework.
