Our Forgotten Rural Region

How many times have Nevadans in the rural region heard career politicians promise them during their infrequent ‘tours’ of the rural region, “Vote for me and I will take care of you!” or something similar? By now, most of us have learned that such promises coming from career politicians are meaningless. Those promises are almost as bad as President Reagan’s old joke, “Trust me, I’m from the government and I’m here to help!” Those of us who respect and hold dear all the promises and dreams of our fellow Nevadans who live in the rural region of our Great State are looking for someone to look out for all of us by holding the government accountable.

I am that someone. I am Tom Heck and I’m running to be your next Governor. I’m sure you want to know how I’m different from all those old, tired, and recycled career politicians who perpetually run for office, somehow convincing us to honor them with our vote, and then put more energy into keeping their job rather than doing their job once they are elected. For me, the rural region of Nevada is the true heart and soul of our Great State because the rural region produces strong, tough, and true patriots who love Nevada and America! Many of you know that Nevada’s motto started out as “Willing and Able,” which evolved into “All for our Country!”  This was the rural region’s belief about what it meant to be an American and remains a true belief of its citizens to this day!

The rural region of Nevada is comprised of the most hard-working people in our state. These people work and play hard to make a living for their families, all done under the most difficult and trying circumstances in challenging geography and weather. But today, rather than the career politicians and government bureaucrats supporting the rural region, we have seen them add burdensome, unnecessary, and ill-conceived regulations, taxes, fees, and laws that stifle our people, communities, and businesses. The rural region of Nevada has been neglected across the

board from the lack of adequate medical and mental health services to needed social services.

We’ve also seen our politically elite career politicians fail to provide educational excellence in our schools to ensure our children can achieve their dreams and success later in life. Further, we’ve seen these career politicians and government bureaucrats ignore the need for adequate transportation services for the Nevadan’s who live and work in the rural region. We need a Governor who will ensure the people, communities and businesses in the rural region are supported rather than buried in governmental missteps and ineptitude caused by incompetent career politicians, governmental bureaucrats, and other members of the politically elite. We need a Governor who knows how to identify and solve problems to achieve successful outcomes for all Nevadan’s.

The rural region has been forgotten and left behind with empty promises from career politicians who say one thing and do another, spending more time working to keep their jobs rather than doing their jobs! Yep, the rural region has been forgotten and left behind. The ineffective and inefficient state support in the rural region for medical, dental, mental health, social services, education, and transportation is unacceptable and beyond appalling. This will change when I am elected as your next Governor.

I believe government must stop accepting mediocrity and focusing on what we can’t do rather than focusing on benchmarking with other states and organizations to find ways to do better for our citizens. Focusing on out-of-the-box solutions based on common sense that produce successful outcomes is what I will work on and what I will demand from all members of my administration. You have my word that Nevada will become a benchmark state and that those who are paid by your hard-earned tax dollars will no longer work toward mediocrity, which is currently the standard of our political class, but will work for perfection and only settle for excellence!

Medical/Dental:  The rural region has a shortage of doctors, dentists, and other medical professionals. Residents often drive hundreds of miles for medical care. Instead of state government incentivizing more of these medical professionals and paraprofessionals to live in the rural region and provide services, the current cadre of career politicians and bureaucrats accept today’s status quo as the best that can be done for the people of Nevada who live and work in the rural region. Other states have solved this medical care problem and so can we! For example, Alaska has a very effective plan for providing services to their citizens living in the rural and frontier areas of their state. I will develop scholarship incentives for college students pursuing medical and dental degrees but will require a substantial payback that they must live and deliver services in the rural region for at least a 3-year commitment. No longer will we accept that the rural region is forgotten and left behind and no longer will we allow those who accept the generosity of our tax dollars, whether federal or state, to obtain their education to ignore their commitment to pay back that gift to our people in the rural region!

Mental Health & Social Services: Similarly, Nevada government has faced challenges in recruiting college graduates to work in the rural region to provide these services. Even though many get state and federal support with which to earn their college credentials, too many times state bureaucrats do not hold these young professionals accountable to pay back this support by living and working in the rural region to provide desperately needed services. There will be no more free rides for these students who accept this support and then refuse to honor their commitments! And, when I am your next Governor, I will demand state bureaucrats work to recruit students who will work and live in the rural region after graduation. When I am your next Governor, I will demand and hold state bureaucrats accountable for ensuring those college graduates who received Nevadans’ hard earned tax dollars for their tuition, will keep their commitment and pay back what was invested in them by living and working in the rural region to provide services. No longer will we accept that the rural region is forgotten and left behind and no longer will we allow those who accept the generosity of our tax dollars, whether federal or state, to obtain their education to ignore their commitment to pay back that gift to our people in the rural region!

Education: Not only is Nevada, as a whole, rated 50^th in most national rankings for education, but we also have an exceedingly difficult time recruiting teachers and other education professionals to live and work in the rural region of our state. Similarly, I will require that the big school systems, like Washoe and Clark County, through the State Department of Education, incentivize their new hires to serve at least one year in the rural region. The military does something similar for difficult to fill remote assignments, often promising cherry follow-on assignments. No longer will we accept that the rural region is forgotten and left behind and no longer will we allow those who accept the generosity of our tax dollars, whether federal or state, to obtain their education to ignore their commitment to pay back that gift to our people in the rural region!

Transportation:  The lack of available and affordable public transportation in the rural region of our state is a long-standing problem which has been ignored creating many barriers to getting people the services they need. There is no easy solution to this problem nor is there a quick fix. I pledge to find solutions and will not allow my administration to continue to ignore this vital and needed service for our citizens who live in the rural region. This is not some Herculean problem like putting a man or woman on the moon. Many other states have similar barriers created by the remoteness of some geographical areas, which they have overcome. My administration will benchmark and partner with those who have solved these problems already and not reinvent the wheel. No longer will we accept that the rural region is forgotten and left behind because of transportation barriers!

Some of the barriers that stand in the way of better serving our citizens who live in the rural and frontier regions of our state are caused by a state government fraught with fraud, waste, and abuse. I will address and correct this problem. In addition, many state services are ineffective and inefficient because too many times corrupt bureaucrats have been allowed to mismanage our tax supported programs and services and to hire people, on our tax dime, because they know or like the person instead of hiring competent people who are well educated and credentialed, who have a proven history of leadership, who adhere to the highest standards of ethical behavior, and who have proven they can get things done for the people they are paid to serve. Today, a successful career in Nevada state government is one characterized by not making any mistakes and not identifying problems, because when one identifies a problem, one becomes the problem in our current state government culture.

This culture will change when I am your next Governor. Currently, we do not solve problems because state workers are not allowed to identify problems which means we have an ineffective and inefficient do-nothing culture in our state government. “Good enough for government work” is a standard I never will accept as your next Governor. My standard will be, “We work for perfection, and we settle for excellence in all we do for the citizens of our Great State.”  We will break down barriers for our citizens as well as our state workforce. I will ensure what gets done, gets rewarded. I intend to clean house of the old guard in state service. No longer will we accept that any citizen in Nevada, including those who live in the rural region, is forgotten and left behind for any reason, especially as a result of a bureaucrat’s incompetence or lack of caring!

I know many of our rural region citizens are tired and fed-up with career politicians. I’m tired of these career politicians, too. These career politicians seem to have a whole lot of money to burn as they sweep through our rural communities with empty promises that produce ineffective outcomes and once elected, are never to be seen again in our rural region communities. I know many of our rural region citizens are also tired of the inept bureaucrats these career politicians hire and who are paid through our tax dollars yet are never held to any standards that produce successful outcomes. We can no longer tolerate empty promises which produce zero results, and neither can we accept that the rural region is forgotten and left behind simply because we elect politicians who only know how to politic and have never had to solve real-life problems for those who put them in office. Isn’t it time to elect someone who can fix this mess?

What will Tom Heck do for you as your next Governor? First, I will make a round-robin fact finding tour through all the rural counties. In each county, I will have town-hall meetings to better understand our challenges and needs. All my cabinet will attend these initial Town Hall meetings, including the Transportation Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Education so they are better able to assess your needs and how to support our rural communities and the people who live there. Then, I will work with the legislature to develop and enact effective programs and services for the rural region that work and meet your needs, while shutting down those that don’t work.

I am also going to champion and then sign legislation for an incentivized medical education pay-back program to provide more doctors to the rural region and a patient Direct Primary Care (DPC) program similar to Alaska’s that will work for the rural region. DPC allows doctors to do more doctoring and less paperwork and is not rule driven by medical insurance companies or Medicaid. I will work with the feds to develop a Medicaid Waiver program for this initiative and with our Bureau of Insurance to recruit health insurance companies to participate as well. I am going to ensure social services from the state are truly effective and professional with trained staff to serve our most vulnerable people, especially children and at-risk families. I am going to establish an Office of Inspector General to address governmental fraud, waste, and abuse. Then, I am also going to ask our legislature to establish a Suggestion Program where those that submit great ideas that save taxpayer dollars are monetarily rewarded.

But what is most important to me is to regularly hear from you. The forgotten rural region will no longer be forgotten nor left behind when I am your next Governor. I will continue with annual town-hall meetings in the rural region accompanied by cabinet members and other stakeholders who are responsible for improving services in the RR.

The rural region residents are still the heart and soul of Nevada! They are some of the truest American patriots in our country. The challenges and barriers we see in the rural and frontier region of our state must be addressed and resolved by someone like me who has a long history of producing successful outcomes for America and Americans. With your help and support we can make the rural region prosper. With your help, the rural region of our Great State will no longer be forgotten.

Most of the candidates currently running for Governor are “one trick ponies.” We have a couple of career politicians, a law enforcement officer, a doctor, and a celebrity lawyer…and that’s all they’ve ever done. I am more than a “one trick pony”! I have the breadth of experience and education with a solid history of working in large organizations and leading many people to solve problems and get things done. I am strong, tough, and tested! I am a proven leader who has made difficult and challenging decisions, absent political considerations, throughout my career. We don’t need anymore “fluff” politicians who say one thing while they’re on the campaign trail, then do another once in office. It’s time we elect a Governor who gets the things done for all Nevadan’s and who understands he works for them, not the politically elite!

Unlike the other candidates, I have led over 50 different functional areas during my career. I have always been the “go-to guy” to get things done and, when no one else could get it done, I did! I am a United States Air Force Academy graduate with almost 23 years of active duty in the military. I’ve seen a lot of the world and have done a lot to protect America and Americans. I’ve also worked for local governments for 9 years and I have three graduate degrees, all of which I earned while on active duty. My last civilian job was running the Logistics for the Reagan Ballistic Missile Test Site in the South Pacific. I had one of the highest security clearances in the military because I had been assigned the most difficult and complex jobs in my career to protect lives and our freedoms. I am a proven leader who has consistently produced successful outcomes in every assignment throughout my career.

If you’re ready for a positive change in Nevada, if you want our citizens and taxpayers to be heard, if you’re ready for a go-getter in the Governor’s Office who will solve problems and produce successful outcomes, if you’re ready for a Governor who will clean house in our state government, if you’re ready for a Governor who has high standards of excellence and will hold his administration accountable for meeting those standards, if you’re ready for a Governor who will make the government responsive to the people, then I am asking for your support and your vote. Elect me, Tom Heck as your next Governor!

Yes, let’s elect a Governor, like me, who will revolutionize state government to better serve all Nevadan’s, especially those who have been left behind and forgotten in the rural region.

Vote Tom Heck for Governor in the June 14, 2022, Republican Primary.

With your support, we will Make America and Nevada Great Again!

For more information and to donate to my campaign, visit http://www.electheck.com. You can also call me at (775) 393-0500. I actually answer my phone!