WARRENSBURG – The Johnson County Republican Women hosted a candidate forum featuring seven Republicans running for the 5th Congressional District and Missouri’s 54th House District on Monday, June 15.
Community members gathered at the Warrensburg Community Center to hear from Republican candidates ahead of the Aug. 4 Primary Election.
Key issues like access to abortion and gender-affirming care, immigration, state income tax and more were brought forward by JCRW’s president and event moderator, Sarah Wiley. Each candidate chose a random question from a bucket to answer before the crowd and were given two-to-three minutes to do so.
“We’re giving the community a chance to hear all of our new congressional candidates, and (we have) a lot of them because the 5th District is a new district, so it’s a wide-open race,” Wiley said. “It’s an exciting time for us, so we’re wanting to hear from all of them and we’re excited to have them here.”
Those in attendance had the chance to hear from Rep. Brandon Phelps and his opponent in the primary race for District 54 representative, Joe Plemons, along with those running for the District 5 congressional seat Micah Beebe, Rick Brattin, Taylor Burks, Brett Hueffmeier and Brad Patty. Candidate Berton A. Knox did not attend the forum. The winner of the GOP primary for the District 5 seat will run against incumbent Rep. Emanuel Cleaver in the Nov. 3 General Election.
Candidates for Missouri State House District 54
Raised in Johnson County, Plemons served in law enforcement, the fire service and more over his 40-year career. With his experience as a public servant in the county, he said he’d be the perfect person to represent the district in the Missouri State House of Representatives.
“What better representative should know people and be in their homes and in their lives on their worst day,” Plemons said. “I’ve seen the struggle that the people in Johnson County have and I’ve committed myself to helping with that struggle and just (being) a representative of those people.”
Phelps echoed a similar commitment to serving Johnson County in his current role as state representative. As a small business owner who, like Plemons, has raised his family in Johnson County, he said continuing to represent the district as he promised in 2024 would be his main priority if re-elected in August.
“I believe we need state government to be small, we need taxes to be low. We need to back all of our first responders. Our economy is a major driver, and our economy is driven by agriculture and small business– we’re going to do whatever we can so those individuals running those farms and businesses can keep our economy growing,” Phelps said. “These are all things I believed in two years ago. My voting record reflects those things. I’m asking you to send me back for another two years.”
From ideas regarding the regulation of artificial intelligence data centers, to how candidates would pass a revised version of the failed Second Amendment Preservation Act– a piece of legislation that deems various federal laws regulating firearms as “infringements on the people’s right to keep and bear arms,” – Plemons and Phelps were each asked a myriad of different questions during their time in front of attendees.
To close, Wiley asked both candidates the pros and cons of Missouri Amendment 3, an amendment to the current law that would prohibit abortion and gender transition procedures for minors, currently listed on November's ballot.
“The current law is the Wild, Wild, West and anybody can do anything they want, wherever they want, no restrictions. That’s absolutely ridiculous,” Phelps said. “We need to get some oversight of what’s going on. We need to make sure these minors that are having these transgender surgeries without their parents knowing about it– it’s just absolutely crazy. So, it’s a fix. Is it the perfect fix? Probably not, but it’s the fix we polled that we thought, ‘This is as far as we can go and still get the majority of the people to say yes.’”
As a new candidate, Plemons said he agreed with Phelps’ position, though both candidates said they didn’t feel the amendment went far enough to prohibit children from gaining access to what many on the other side of the political aisle call life-saving care.
“I am definitely an advocate for a ‘yes’ vote on Amendment 3,” Plemons said. “As far as parental rights and underage abortions and transition surgeries– that’s a foreign concept to me. I don’t understand how that could even be brought up or how that happens without parents knowing.”
Candidates for Missouri Congressional District 5
Originally from the Lake of the Ozarks, Burks served for 19 years in the United States Navy before he ran for the 4th Congressional District seat. As a member of a fifth-generation farming family, Burks said his military and agricultural experiences would serve him well as a congressman.
“I think it’s incredibly important that we send a member who understands both the agricultural heritage of the district, as well as (the) armed services of Whiteman Air Force Base being just down the road,” Burks said. “A congressman who can speak to the values of mid-Missouri. Those are things that are sorely lacking under Congressman Cleaver.”
For Beebe, his Christian ideals paired with his experience as a real estate broker are what he said make him a strong candidate for the 5th District.
“I felt like this was something the Lord placed on my heart, and this was something that I was called to do,” Beebe said. “When I step in front of you guys and tell you, ‘This is what I stand for,’ I mean that. My word is my bond. I’m a conservative, I’m pro-life, I’m pro-Second Amendment, I’m pro-small government.”
During his introduction, Brattin likened the UFC cage match President Donald Trump hosted on the White House’s South Lawn to the current political landscape. As a career politician, Brattin said he’s the only Republican candidate in the race that has the experience necessary to hold a congressional seat.
“It’s a real, true cage match. We used to say politics is war without the blood, but when we’ve seen the president of the United States have an attempted assassination on him, on a way of life, day in and day out, it’s war with blood,” Brattin said. “It was emblematic of where we are in America today. We need a fighter to send to Washington to hit the ground running.”
As a business executive, with experience working in Washington D.C. and a background in law, Hueffmeier said his experiences would help him push for a more balanced economy if he were elected to congress.
“We have a Washington that’s really broken. I think you can all see that. You all know how to balance your checkbooks, but Washington doesn’t,” Hueffmeier said. “We have a debt ceiling that was designed with the effect of constraining our spending, but in fact, it just causes us to go into gridlock. We need to change that whole system. We need to do something that’s more practical.”
A self-proclaimed “outsider,” Brad Patty, 25-year Army veteran who served at the Korean Demilitarized Zone and the Pentagon, said sending someone who has never been a politician before would be in the best interest of the voters.
“When I hear my opponent say we need to send an experienced politician to Washington D.C., I think that’s the last thing we need,” Patty said. “We need to send character that will not buckle under pressure. Let’s build an elected official we would be proud of– let’s send somebody who is not a politician.”
Though the candidates were asked a slate of different questions, across the board, each candidate agreed that access to gender-affirming care and abortions should be at least prohibited for minors, if not completely outlawed altogether.
As far as immigration, each candidate also agreed that stricter limits should be imposed on those trying to gain citizenship in the United States, with many of the candidates agreeing that more oversight from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency would be beneficial. Many of the candidates, like Burks, Brattin and Beebe said they would bring the same conservative values President Trump holds to their 5th Congressional District seat should they be elected.
Hasina Shah can be reached at 660-747-8123.
