Latest / Breaking The Meta / Air Force Vet Runs for Missouri State House to Fight for Healthcare & Affordability | Jewel Kelly
Transcript
- Breaking The Meta: Hello everyone and welcome to Breaking the Meta. name is Mike Winson. Today we are sitting down with Jewel Kelly, who is running for Missouri's House District 106. Hello Jewel, how are you doing today? Jewel Kelly: Hello, Mike. Thank you for having me. Breaking The Meta: Absolutely. I have gotten to sit down with a lot of people that are running for statehouse seats in Missouri. And y'all are some of the nicest people, so I'm really excited to have this conversation. let's start off by getting to know a little bit about you and then why you decided to run for a seat in the first place. Jewel Kelly: Yes, so my name is Jewel Kelly. I am an Air Force veteran. I joined two months after 9-11. I served 10 years in the Air Force. After my Air Force career, my wife and I started a real estate business. I got my license about 10 years ago. And in addition, I became a mortgage loan originator as well. ⁓ Tragically, in 2018, I lost my bonus daughter, my wife's daughter, to suicide. Breaking The Meta: Hmm. Jewel Kelly: And of course that completely rearranged our priorities and ⁓ due to the grief that we experienced and frankly, the questions that we were getting from other families that were suffering, we started a mental health foundation called Fighting Chance. And the goal of that was really to do two things. One, to reduce the stigma because unfortunately a lot of families are still suffering silently. And then the second one is to really share the resources that are already in our communities. Breaking The Meta: ⁓ wow. Jewel Kelly: A lot of times we don't know what's out there and in a moment of crisis, it's very, very important to get people connected to the right resources. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. So why did you decide to run for office? Jewel Kelly: Yes, so I grew up very, very poor. I'm the eldest of 18 brothers by the same parents. 18, so my mom had 10 boys and eight girls. There are four of us and I'm me being the eldest. Yes, sir. With me being the eldest and she had six boys in four years. And we grew up very poor. However, my dad had a union job. And with the union job came excellent health care. Breaking The Meta: Wow! God bless your mother. Hmm. Jewel Kelly: So even though we didn't necessarily have enough to eat sometimes, we never missed the dental appointment, we never missed the medical appointment because he had excellent healthcare. And because of that, all of us are still alive today. I'll share real quickly, my youngest sister, she was born blind, never been able to walk or talk. She frankly was not expected to live past three weeks. But because of my dad, excellent healthcare, she is alive day at the age of 31. Breaking The Meta: Mm. Yep. Mm-hmm. Wow. Jewel Kelly: And I'm sure millions of Americans in 2026 are realizing that healthcare, as expensive and as inaccessible it was for millions of Americans, in 2026, more Americans who had healthcare are losing healthcare. And so healthcare is very, very important and it's part of a broader challenge that we have in America, which is affordability. And so given my background, given how critical healthcare was to me. I think it's time for those who can lead and have the experience to figure out ways that we can increase affordability, reduce costs, and certainly provide healthcare, which of course includes mental healthcare ⁓ as I mentioned earlier. Breaking The Meta: Yes. Yeah. So to give us an idea of your district in general, as you've walked around and talked to people, what have been the pain points? What have been the things that most people have talked to you about that they hope you can help them with if you get elected to the Missouri State House? Jewel Kelly: Yes. Number one is affordability. And we see that as realtors and as mortgage lenders, people simply need a place to live. And frankly, for millions of Americans, they're locked out of owning a home. so affordability is certainly number one. Healthcare is certainly number two. Families want to be able to send their kids to good schools that teach real skills that will prepare their children for the next, you know, for the workforce, right? Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Jewel Kelly: to be able to help people, to be able to participate in our society. So strong schools are very important. People want to feel safe. So public safety that we can trust is very important. ⁓ The dignity of every neighbor is very important. Those are some of the common things that people are talking about. And then of course, since the reelection of Donald Trump, ⁓ you know, the fight for democracy is front and center. So Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Jewel Kelly: We have a lot of issues, really regardless of party, affordability, healthcare, housing, schools, safe streets, those are things that most Americans are ⁓ fighting for and frankly want leadership to fix it. Breaking The Meta: has the loss of the ACA subsidies and the changes to the SNAP benefits and all the other things that are coming down the line from the big beautiful bill. How is that affecting your district currently? Jewel Kelly: It's affected it in every way. We are seeing hospitals closing. We were driving to an event yesterday and my wife passed the hospital and she noticed that the billboard for the hospital no longer had the name of the hospital. And that was the hospital that her mother had had knee replacement. It's no longer there, right? And so she was shocked. Breaking The Meta: Mmm. Yeah. Jewel Kelly: that a hospital that had been there for decades because of rising costs and because of mismanagement, it's no longer there, which means that people are going to have to drive further, they're going have to wait longer, and that's if they can afford it. So yes, it is a critical issue right here in our district. ⁓ It's right here in our ⁓ St. Louis greater metropolitan area. Here in St. Charles, do have ⁓ hospitals that are local here. But even still, we are seeing people that frankly that had health insurance last year that no longer will be able to have health insurance this year, which is just a tragedy. Breaking The Meta: How do you hope to use your position in the Missouri State House to help with something like that? Because obviously what we're just talking about right now is federal subsidies. ⁓ So yeah, what do you hope to do on the state side for that? Jewel Kelly: Yes, so I'm originally from Illinois, which is very close to Missouri. And if you could compare the two states, one state tries to help their citizens as much as possible by subsidizing as much as possible of those areas relating to health care. You have another state that literally fought for many years to restrict any additional help. Breaking The Meta: OK. Yep. Mm-hmm. Jewel Kelly: coming from the government, let alone what was being funded at the state level. And so as state representatives, we have to be honest with people and say, yes, we can do better. And I think as a politician, especially in an area that has historically voted, ⁓ you know, not for Democrats, it's really about expanding the common ground. Regardless of party, I believe most people agree that we should be able to afford healthcare. How we afford healthcare Breaking The Meta: Mm. Jewel Kelly: healthcare may be of debate, but everyone agrees that we should be able to have healthcare. Everyone agrees that we shouldn't be losing healthcare in 2026 when we have healthcare in 2025. So I think part of our job is to expand the common ground to say, regardless of where you are, do we all agree that we can do better? Right? And then present your ideas. I present my ideas, the tests that I use, and this is something I learned from the military, one of the toughest commanders I ever had. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Jewel Kelly: She told me, Jewel, if it's legal, safe and fair, you don't need my permission, right? Go do what you need to do. And I remember that today. And so in terms of evaluating a bill, in terms of evaluating a proposal, let's start with what the law says. And not every law is exactly the way we want it, right? But if the law isn't fair, let's change the laws. But let's start with what's written. Let's start with what, at least what people have agreed to do. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Jewel Kelly: And then ⁓ is it safe? Not just safe for some, safe for all. In the past, we thought, okay, well, if you have a job and your job pays health care, I have health care. Okay, it may be safe for those who have a job that has health care. I mentioned my dad had a union job and we had excellent health care. was great. What about those who don't have health care connected to their job? So a lot of the safety has to do not just what's safe for some, Breaking The Meta: Mm. Jewel Kelly: what's safe for all. And then the third one is what's fair. Fair being probably the toughest challenge because people have different definitions. But if we're at least starting with the conversation, again, not what's fair for some, what's fair for all. One of the things I took away from my military service is we leave no one behind. ⁓ When you're in a combat zone, and I deploy twice to combat areas, Breaking The Meta: Hmm. Yep. Jewel Kelly: Yes, you are concerned about democracy. Yes, we are concerned about those big things, but your day-to-day focus is really making sure that the person ahead of you, the person right behind you, the two people on your side, that we all get to come home safely, right? You don't leave anyone behind. And I think that's probably the biggest challenge that we face in America. Too many of us are being left behind, even though we've done everything that we were told we needed to do. We're being left behind. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Hmm. Yeah. Jewel Kelly: And so that's what I hope to bring to the state house is that focus on expanding common ground with the principles of being safe, being legal and being fair for all. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. One of the other things that are pretty common in terms of it doesn't really matter which side of the aisle you're on that I think a lot of voters, a lot of citizens in this country are frustrated with when it comes to our politicians is this idea of accountability or the lack thereof when it comes to them. So what does accountability mean to you? What does being held accountable by your constituents, your district mean to you. Jewel Kelly: Yes. Again, going back to what's legal, no one is above the law. No one. And that means at the federal level, state level, local level. It means whether you are a citizen or non-citizen, no one is above the law. And I think people expect at a minimum, our politicians who represent us to follow the law. Right? So I think that's the first thing. And I think also being transparent. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Jewel Kelly: Another thing that I learned in the military is it's not just about what we do, but we have to be very clear about the actions that we take, how they can be perceived. And so part of addressing accountability is transparency. I learned as a team, teamwork is certainly built on trust. Trust is built on truth. Breaking The Meta: Mm. Mm-hmm. Jewel Kelly: But truth is built on transparency, right? It's very hard for you to, even if someone is telling you the truth, but if they're not being transparent about it, if they're slowly leaking out the information, even if it's true, you may not trust it. And so transparency is a very big one. And I think that, again, that's something that regardless of whether you're a Democrat or Republican, we all agree. And obviously the number one thing that most people are talking about, you know, in terms Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Jewel Kelly: Other than affordability and the issues that we talked about is the Epstein files, right? And you had a vote where all of Congress, except one, voted to say, yes, at a minimum, we should be transparent. Regardless of who's at fault, we want to know what happened. And so I think accountability certainly starts with transparency. Accountability certainly starts with following the law, right? And then as we... address challenges, some of these laws needs to be changed, which is why you have a legislature and that's why we're here to create laws and to revise laws and improve laws so that we don't leave anyone behind. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Division is also something that is pretty, is a big deal in this country. I think there are a lot more places that all of us actually align. We've talked about just specifically even just the idea of accountability and what that looks like. What has been your experience going around your district and talking to people that may have been historically conservative or historically voted Republican when they find out that you, you know, you're running with a D next to your name? Jewel Kelly: Yes, it starts with listening. And what I do when I meet a constituent or I meet a voter or potential voter, I ask them, what is your number one concern? And they tell me what their number one concerns are. And then I hand them my literature. And most of the time, it's affordability. And that's my number one. And so I'm trying to find common ground. And Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Jewel Kelly: My role is to expand common ground. I said the other day, you know, I want to, and this is a military term, it's what's behind our actions when we go on the offense. We seize, we retain, and we exploit, right? And so you seize people's attention, first of all, by listening to them, letting them tell their story and show that you truly care about them and Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Jewel Kelly: what their priorities are. So that's the seizing part. The retaining part is to actually absorb what they're saying and say, I hear you. And hopefully you can, you know, hopefully I can relate to what they're saying in a personal way as well. And then the third part, which is the toughest part is how do you expand? How do you exploit, hey, this is our shared goal. We may disagree on exactly how to get there, but let's put your ideas on the table. I'll put my ideas on the table and let's figure out. how we can at a minimum advance in those areas where we have agreement. And so I think, you know, healthcare is certainly something that most Americans can agree on. Most Americans agree that the majority of Americans cannot afford to purchase a house, right? So what are some of those things that we can do? And there are things that we can do even at the local level to make houses more affordable. We know simply from a supply and demand, you know, perspective. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Jewel Kelly: that there are more people looking to buy a house than there are houses available. So the supply is limited, which means that the, mean, I'm sorry, the demand is limited, which means the demand is greater than the supply of houses, right? So if we know that we can't immediately address or reduce the demand, we have to focus on the supply. We have to focus on if, Breaking The Meta: Yes. Jewel Kelly: There are areas where we can create more accessible dwelling units, where if there is an opportunity to have a family member stay in a renovated garage, that you've now ⁓ made an accessible dwelling unit. ⁓ Those are things that we can do that can be done rather quickly. Of course, there's been a tremendous focus on reducing interest rates, which will make life more affordable. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Jewel Kelly: You know, we know that housing is very, important and we know that there are things, there are rules, there are regulations that we can do to help small businesses and construction companies build houses quicker, get the permits that they need to do that quicker. That's one thing. Of course, healthcare is a huge issue and what we're realizing is for too long, we have ignored those who did not have insurance, health insurance through their employer. And that model, never worked well. It certainly is causing even more problems today. So healthcare is definitely a big issue. Every single politician should be focused on how do we make healthcare more affordable so that ⁓ the older we get, the less we have to worry about whether or not we're going to be able to even get the help that we need. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. I want to spend a second future casting, if you don't mind. ⁓ November 3rd comes along. You win. know, Jewel Kelly wins. He's going to become the next representative for House 106 in Missouri. January comes along. You're sworn in. What is the first thing that you do? Jewel Kelly: Yes, I mentioned affordability being number one, and I think the way we address affordability is with transparency. And so there are things, again, in Missouri, we have a super majority, right? So even if I were to win, and hopefully St. Charles, there are two seats here that are very close to flipping. The last candidate only lost by a thousand votes, so I hope to my race. And then 105 only lost by 99 votes. Breaking The Meta: Hmm. No, wow. Jewel Kelly: But if we're even, if we're still able to flip those two, and let's say we pick up a third one, we can break the supermajority, but we will still in the minority. And so to answer your question specifically on day one, I expect to still be in the minority, right? Which means that all of the great ideas that the Democratic party has, we probably will not be able to implement those on day one. But we can fight for accountability. We can fight for transparency. And so truth and pricing is one of those things that, again, it's not really a partisan issue. Whether you go online to go to a concert and the prices that you initially see are nowhere near the total cost. Most Americans would agree. Yes, we can do that, but we need to expand it further from just simply tickets, right? It's when anything that you're shopping for, you should know and have a very good idea as to what it is that Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Jewel Kelly: you're going to be charged in the end. And that way you can at least compare product A with product B and select the right product. There's nothing more frustrating than paying more than what you originally intended to pay simply because of bad labeling and not truth in pricing. So that would be the first thing. It's a small step, but those dollars do add up and it sets the groundwork for saying, hey, the status quo, we've got to change it. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Jewel Kelly: It's going to start with accountability. And like I said, all of those things really boils down to transparency. So truth and pricing would definitely be one. And then at the state level, there are things that we can do to make it easier for local communities to address housing by making it easier to do things like accessible dwelling units. So that's number one. And number two would be focusing on ways we can increase the housing supply. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. For anyone that has listened this far and heard everything that we have talked about up until this point, what are one or two things that no matter what, you would want to make sure that someone walks away knowing about you and your campaign? Jewel Kelly: Yes, I shared my personal story and so mental health is my personal passion. And one of the things that we learned after the fact is that there are things that we can do to address mental health. Mental health affects everything. It affects whether or not you can stay in school or do well in school. It affects whether or not you can have a good relationship. It affects whether or not you're able to hold a job, right? Obviously our criminal justice system is very closely tied to mental health. the safety of our country's time. One of the things that we can do, and this is something that we do with our ⁓ foundation, is take the mental health first aid. And mental health first aid will teach you how to see if someone's having a problem, a mental health crisis, how to approach them, how to have those conversations, how to listen non-judgmentally, how to give reassurance with fact, how to encourage professional help, and then how to encourage self-help. So mental health matters. ⁓ is, mental health is healthcare. And so we personally, yes, I'm a veteran. Yes, I'm fighting for democracy, but my personal passion is mental health. And I see so many millions of Americans struggling with it. ⁓ I hope to be known as someone that made mental health more accessible and reduce the stigma across our country. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. For anyone that wants to know more about you or support you, whether it's through volunteering or a donation, where can they find you? Jewel Kelly: Yes, so jewelkelly.com, my first and last name, J-E-W-E-L-K-E-L-L-Y dot com. That's my website. I am on Facebook, Jewel Kelly for Missouri. Breaking The Meta: Awesome. Joel, thank you so much for sitting down with us and letting us get to know you and hear about what you hope to do for your district in Missouri. Jewel Kelly: Thank you so much, Mike. Thank you for having me. Breaking The Meta: Absolutely. For everyone else that listened this far, thank you so much. Please consider hitting all those buttons down below, like, subscribe, all that. It makes it possible for me to keep doing what I'm doing here, which is trying to reach out and interview as many progressives in this country that are running, that aren't going to take corporate money, that want to break the status quo, that want to be held accountable for what they're doing and want just want real change that we've been screaming about all this time. So ⁓ Please, if you have that capability, ⁓ regardless, obviously, if you can help anyone like Joel ⁓ financially, that would be, he would greatly appreciate it. But at minimum, some of the things you can do is watch, share, and engage in content that gives them things like name recognition and visibility that they don't normally get because they don't have large corporations supporting their ability to do what they're doing. For anyone listening, please help out any way you can. ⁓ And for those of you that are new to this podcast, just so you know, Breaking the Meta is all about having hard conversations when necessary, fighting to break the status quo, and the idea that all people, no matter your race, religion, gender, or identity, get rights, respect, dignity, and safety. Joel, thank you again for being here, and everyone else, we'll see you next time on Breaking the Meta. Bye, guys. Jewel Kelly: Thank you so much, Mike. Thank you for having me.