Democratic Candidates Call for Healthcare Access, Full Public School Funding, and Transparency on Data Centers

Democratic candidates at the rally at the Old 169 Club Saturday called for access to healthcare, full funding for public schools, and transparency for data centers in various speeches by candidates. Jerry Forney entertained the group of around 50 people, who came and went throughout the afternoon. There were people from all over the area, including Gentry and Daviess Counties.

Judy McNeece, State Senate District 12

Ms. McNeece said that the main issue for her was public education, especially in rural schools. She pointed out that the Missouri Constitution specifically requires full funding of public schools. “They seem to find money for everything else,” she told the Express. She said that the state is creating even more red tape for local schools, which she says makes it even harder. “We need public funding for public schools,” she said. She opposes the MO Scholars program, which gives money to private schools. While teacher pay for the state has risen to a $40,000 minimum, Ms. McNeece said it still wasn’t enough.

On healthcare. Ms. McNeece said that her ideal was universal healthcare. But right now, she said that Medicaid needs to be strengthened. As a woman with chronic pain, she noted that the state recently cut physical therapy as of July 1^st of this year. So now, she says that when she has too much pain, she must either go to the emergency room, get prescription pills, or deal with it. “We need everyone a chance to be pain free,” she said. Ms. McNeece noted that out of the 18 counties in her district, only four were not maternal care deserts. “If people want families, they have to travel all the time,” she said. “Women have to take off work.” While the Harrison County Hospital has been expanding, building a new building, she said that rural hospitals are dependent on Medicare and Medicaid and that rug could be pulled on them at any time. She noted that there are 12 that are in danger of closing in Missouri.

What makes the situation even worse, said Ms. McNeece, is a system that allows insurance companies to require preauthorization, a process that can take weeks or months, and work requirements that require a doctor’s note when it is already hard to make an appointment. “We need to stop putting big corporations first, and put people first,” said Ms. McNeece. “When we do that, more businesses will choose to come here.”

On data centers, Ms. McNeece said that there should be an open and transparent process regarding data centers, and that it should be up to a vote of the people. She said that independent studies should be done that are not paid for by the data centers that measure air, water, and noise quality. “We are getting too dependent on AI,” she said. “They say they will produce jobs, but the state only requires them to create 10 new jobs,” she said. While Missouri is getting more and more data centers, the Missouri State Auditor’s Office recently sent out an alarming news release saying that Missouri was going off a $2 billion fiscal cliff, and that the state would go broke by 2029 unless the legislature made drastic cuts. Ms. McNeece noted that a law passed in 2015 states that data centers don’t have to pay for anything inside their facilities. She said that they should have to pay their fair share of taxes like everyone else. She said she was skeptical of the water being self-contained in some of these facilities. “Water is a precious commodity,” she said.

Ms. McNeece was using a walker Saturday to get around. “I’m not young, but I’ve got a lot of determination,” she said. “I want voters to have a choice at the polls.” She said she was inspired by Jess Piper, who challenged someone to step forward to challenge Republican incumbent Rusty Black after it looked like he might run unopposed this cycle. “I know I’m going up against big money,” she said. “I take my donations from friends and neighbors, and I’m fine with that.”

Reid Gibson

Reid Gibson of Worth was the emcee for the event, which was organized by the Gentry County Women’s Democratic Club. It served as a fundraiser for the Democratic candidates. All of the proceeds went to the candidates. Barb Mahoney and Bridget Gibson are the co-chairs.

Mr. Gibson said he hoped to make this event like the Harkin Steak Fry of Iowa. It was held at a balloon field near Indianola (IA), and all the big players of the Democratic Party came. Bridget Gibson once shooks hands with Bill Clinton there, and singer Cheryl Crow once did a concert there that they got to go to. “You had to have tickets to get into that event, this is free,” said Mr. Gibson.

He said that the goal of the party was to fight for clean air, clean water, and hunting and fishing for everyone to enjoy. “This is a pretty neck of the woods, it looks like southern France or better,” said Mr. Gibson. He said that we were fortunate to have the quality of life that we do. “We have the freedom here to do what you want to do; farm what you want, raise livestock, fish, hunt. We have clean air, clean water, roads to drive, schools for our children, hospitals, and we’re not too far from three mega-cities as well as a university 35 miles out. Sure, we could use some new ideas.”

“We don’t want no data centers to come in and ruin our peace, suck up our resources, electricity, water, and mess up our environment for a couple of jobs for a dubious technology that at best will steal jobs from our children and future generations, increase government surveillance, and make handling our personal affairs more difficult,” said Mr. Gibson. “Sounds to me like a ploy that will make the technofascists richer and us poorer. We need our politicians to stand up and say no.” Instead, Mr. Gibson said, we needed more projects like Lettuce Dream, which produces lettuce locally. “Agricultural diversification would help,” said Mr. Gibson. “Small businesses. Make funding available. Grow blueberries, tobacco, ethanol.”

Turning to the recent primary election, Mr. Gibson said that Missouri is a conservative state in the classic sense. “We value our freedom, our constitution for the people of Missouri, and reject radical ideas like replacing state income tax with higher sales taxes and limiting our right to petition,” he said. “And I think that the primary elucidated that Governor Mike Kehoe and the Republican administration are out of touch with the people of Missouri. He wants to turn us into a new Texas. Well, I lived in Texas, and it sucks! WalletHub just rated Texas as the crappiest state in the nation; low homeownership rates, low percentage of college graduates, property taxes twice what they are in California, toll roads everywhere, they don’t believe in labor unions so wages are far lower than other states, their power grid is a mess.” By contrast, said Mr. Gibson, “We the people of Missouri voted to raise the minimum wage, and as a result, people are moving to Missouri to work.”

He concluded, “That’s why we are endorsing these candidates. This is the party, and these are the candidates who will fight to protect our way of life here, they will fight to preserve your freedoms, your rights, public schools, public roads, and not back radical ideas that seek to line the pockets of the politicians working for the ultra-wealthy. And keep the government out of your bedroom and doctor’s office.”

Josh Smead, 6^th District, US Congress

Josh Smead is the Democratic nominee for the 6^th District congressional race, which has gotten more money than at any time in two decades. He told the Express that it was a lot more dangerous to live in Northern Missouri because of what he saw as lack of access to healthcare and affordable housing. He said that he supported fully funding education at both the national and state levels and would support a national ban on the funding of religious schools. He said he supported more investments in infrastructure.

On Iran, he said that President Donald Trump’s policy was so bad that it made George Bush II, who led the country into the conflicts into Iraq and Afghanistan, look like a genius. He said that it was a national embarrassment that the President had to sneak out of Turkey following a NATO conference in a truck and noted that the US already had a deal in place with Iran to keep them from acquiring a nuclear weapon before President Trump tore it up during his first term. “It has only emboldened our enemies,” he said.

On data centers, Mr. Smead said that he supported more transparency on data center development. As an architect, he noted that there were no codes for data centers and said that our rural areas were not equipped for such massive developments. He said that the problems that data centers pose are solvable, but that standards had to be in place for them to follow.

He compared his opponent, Chris Stigall, to Sam Graves 2.0, overseeing the destruction of Northwest Missouri.

Casey Scott, Candidate for 2^nd District Missouri House

Casey Scott spoke briefly to the Express before the speeches started. She said that as a single mother, access to healthcare, especially maternal care, was the main issue. She said that she was fortunate to have that when she had her two daughters, who were with her at the rally, but that many other people don’t have it. She spoke from first-hand experience, having been in healthcare for 15 years.

Josh Smead

Mr. Smead got up and spoke to the audience. He said that as a father of four, he decided that if he wanted to see change, he couldn’t wait until someone else stepped up. “These issues are not going to wait,” he said. He said that the upcoming November election was important because an abortion ban is on the ballot two years after Missouri voters enshrined the right to choose in the state constitution. In addition, the measure bans transgender surgery before one is 18.

He said that the choice is clear. While he supports bodily autonomy, he said Sam Graves was pushing Congress for a federal abortion ban. “My daughter has less rights than people did 30-40 years ago,” said Mr. Smead. In addition, he said he would support an amendment to end big money in politics.

Mr. Smead noted that he had raised the most money in the district since 2008 and that the most Democrats had voted in the recent primary since 2004. “We’re slowly growing at the grassroots level,” said Mr. Smead. He promised to be a uniter and not a divider. “I don’t believe in rural versus urban,” said Mr. Smead. “People all over the district are worried about access to healthcare. It’s gotten a lot more dangerous to have a baby. I’ve spoken to people who have driven 100 mph to get to the hospital because of an emergency.” He noted that he spoke with people who have had to drive one hour for routine prenatal appointments. “That is unacceptable,” he said.

He said he would fight for the working class. “Many people don’t see homeownership as a realistic possibility,” he said. Turning to infrastructure, he said, “Sam Graves is the chair of the House Infrastructure Committee, but you can’t tell it by driving over these roads.” And he said that for all the talk about high-speed internet and 5G coming to the area, there were too many dead spots. “People are trapped in bureaucracy with no solutions,” he said.

Mr. Smead said that his opponent, Chris Stigall, was Sam Graves’ hand-picked successor and he had already spent over $1 million on ads and TV. “A lot of his money comes from out of state,” he said. “And he’s not going to question the $2 billion spent on Iran.”

Turning to school funding, Mr. Smead said that private schools have no school boards that answer the people who elect them.

Returning to Iran, Mr. Smead said that President Trump’s policies have only emboldened Iran, who will only get worse and worse, and that we have already spent $8 trillion in wars in the Middle East. “Graves supported Afghanistan and Iraq,” he said. “We can’t afford to surrender to the MAGA interests who are destroying Rural Missouri.”

Casey Scott

Casey Scott stepped up to the microphone next and talked about her 2^nd District Missouri House campaign. “I know people who put off healthcare all the time because they can’t afford it,” she said. Ms. Scott said that as a person with 15 years of experience in the field, it has gotten to the point where “we cannot deliver a baby.” She noted that hospitals were ending maternity care right and left due to abortion bans and OB-GYN’s were afraid of practicing for fear of repercussions. She said she knew of one woman who had a fetus whose brain did not develop and had to carry it to term.

She said that people were afraid of seeing their savings disappear due to a medical emergency. She said she talked to someone who had a busted water heater and couldn’t afford to replace it. She had recently canvassed Worth County and that people were receptive. She said her goal was to go door to door as much as possible.

Judy McNeece

Judy McNeece got up and spoke next. She talked about how she was playing with her grandson when she fell backwards and injured her back. Occasionally, she says she now must go to the doctor to get her back set again. She said that she was speaking on healthcare as a participant in the system.

“The state needs to do better for all of us,” she said.

On public education, she said that she was against private school vouchers. “That means you’re paying for someone else’s education,” she said. In the meantime, she said, small schools were closing, which leads to communities shutting down. “When kids have to travel to school, businesses close,” she said. She said it doesn’t matter how small a school is, if the people wanted it open, it should stay open. On the other hand, she said if schools are fully funded, people will want to move there.

If elected, Ms. McNeece said she would seek to repeal the capital gains tax eliminations which she said led to less school funding. “25% of it went to public schools,” she said. She opposed tax breaks for the rich. “Good for them,” she said, “But it doesn’t help the rest of us.”

She said her campaign was open to input and ideas. As a banker and loan officer, she said that she knew how to listen to people. “If there was a way we could make it happen, we did,” she said.

Casey Scott

After Ms. McNeece finished her speech, Ms. Scott came back to the microphone with more things to say. “For eight years, I drove from Trenton to Gallatin and Bethany to drop off my kids, because I couldn’t find childcare any closer,” she said. She noted that in Grundy County, there was a big data center fight as there is no zoning there. She encouraged people to reach out to their city council people and county commissioners about looking into zoning. “They could very well come to your neighborhood,” she said. “I’ve seen situations where they make you upgrade your system and then not come in.”

Alisha Dodd

Ms. Dodd is running for Gentry County Collector and Treasurer. She pledged to do all she could to save money for the county and make sure tax dollars went to where they were supposed to go.

Tracey Steele

Mr. Steele, a Worth County grad, is running for House District 12 in Parkville, in a district just north of Kansas City. The DLCC ranked his race as one of the top-tier races for breaking the GOP supermajority in Missouri. In the previous race, the Democrat lost narrowly and the seat is in Republican control. But Mr. Steele said he has had people come up to him and tell him they’ve voted Republican all their life, but they were fed up and angry and not voting for them again.

He said that education was just as big of an issue in the suburbs as it was in the rural areas. He noted that Missouri is 49^th out of 50 in school funding. “We don’t treat our kids like they priority they need to be,” said Mr. Steele to the Express. “The state should pay its share so we don’t have to.”

The problem, said Mr. Steele, is that the people in charge have been cutting taxes, which leads to less funding for schools, roads, and healthcare. “They don’t care because they are driven by their rich donors, not seeking to make our lives easier,” he said.

He said that any data center development has to be done responsibly. He said that the current wave of development was a matter of big corporations taking advantage of tax breaks. “And then the people don’t see the benefit,” said Mr. Steele. “We can’t let these big corporations come here in secret and then threaten to go somewhere else if they don’t get breaks. The people don’t deserve this.”

Mr. Steele said he was not against all development. “I’m pro-labor. I want to see opportunities for good-paying jobs. But it all has to be done responsibly.”

He said he was a Democrat because he wanted to do what was best for the people if elected. “The Republicans enact policies that are forced on them by their billionaire donors, and people are tired of it,” he said, citing the massive rejection of the elimination of the income tax and restrictions on initiative petitions in the state. “They don’t just appear on the ballot. They were put there by the people who are in charge.” The Republicans have had a 14-year supermajority in the legislature and have controlled most of the state offices since 2016. “If we can elect people like Casey Scott, Judy McNeece, myself, and Josh Smead, we can start to bring common sense back to the government,” said Mr. Steele.