Elect Samantha Deaton

Every Missouri child should have access to free, quality public education regardless of their zip code. The burden of paying for children's education must be split between the federal, state, and local government. For decades the state government has been contributing less than their fair share, leaving local governments to increase property taxes to foot the bill. This is unfair to homeowners. It perpetuates generational inequality. It's time to for the state to step up and make sure kids growing up in rural, urban, and suburban areas of Missouri are taken care of equally and prepared for the future. As your representative, I will work to strengthen our public schools and fully fund our commitment to our kids.

I support universal early childhood education, because investing in our kids from an early age is the best way for us to invest in our future. Investing in early childhood education and childcare also positively impacts the economy and workforce by multiplying worker availability.

I also support investment in higher education and workforce training, to ensure all Missourians have the opportunity to gain the skills to compete in our economy. I believe our high schools should support students through a transition to trade school just as readily as they do the university transition, and that we need investments in high school workshops and trade classes.

Quality, accessible, and affordable healthcare is every Missourian’s right. But every year Missouri families must make increasingly difficult decisions for how they prioritize spending on prescription drugs and medical bills over the basic costs of living. I know firsthand how families can be set back over unexpected medical bills and it's time for the state to begin providing the safety net that Missourians have shown overwhelming support for.

It is unacceptable that Missourians, both with and without insurance, intentionally avoid medical care because they can't afford it. As a voter I supported the Medicaid expansion and will work to see it continue to include more of the folks who need it.

Missouri is a beautiful state and we should preserve that. From the Mississippi River to the rolling Ozark mountains, Missourians now and of future generations deserve clean water, fresh air, and preserved wildlife spaces.

Government officials are currently being bought and sold by private interests who aim to pillage and exploit the natural resources of our state and many others. I can tell you now and for the rest of my career; my campaign is not for sale and the preservation of the environment has no price tag in my eyes.

Beyond the value of the natural beauty of our state, climate change is causing an unprecedented rise in catastrophic natural disasters. As your representative, I will vote and work however I can to mitigate our risk and expand local access to emergency services in the event of disaster. I also believe in local disaster management and in giving counties and municipalities the resources to handle disasters on their own and with citizen-involved crisis management teams.

Government works best when it is closer to the people it serves. I respect the fabric of our local communities and trust them to know best when it comes to overcoming the challenges they face. I'm honored to serve in my current city council position and I so appreciate the folks who keep the city of Battlefield running, day in and day out.

The state government manipulates local control through legislation all the time but they also put enormous pressure on local communities and their governments through their inaction. When they refuse to fund important programs that benefit all communities, those communities are left to foot the bill on their own. This creates and contributes to the huge disparity in resources between cities and rural areas in our state.

In Missouri, we have seen many decisions influenced by special interests, circumventing the will of local communities on local issues by preempting local ordinances with state law or by diluting local opposition to matters by including state-wide votes. As a representative, I will hold on to the values and lessons I've learned in my time as an alderwoman.

Agriculture is the backbone of Missouri, and at the heart of it are our family farms—where many of us call home and why generations before us settled here. But passing down our way of life to future generations is becoming increasingly challenging.

Our local communities used to have a say in how farming was done in our backyards, but the Republican-led state legislature has passed bills favoring large corporate farms and pushing out family farms.

Last year, state Republicans passed a bill taking control from local communities to regulate certain large feeding operations known as CAFOs. This allows large scale operations to buy up local farms, push the production limits of the land, and pollute our communities’ treasured landscape without local oversight.

As your state rep, I’ll advocate for the state of Missouri to protect local control, giving ordinary citizens easier access to have their say on how farming operates in their community.

Central to the role of government is to fairly enforce the law, and to provide protection for its people. I will support our law enforcement officers in their difficult jobs, while also demanding accountability when they overreach.

I will support tough sentences for violent criminals, while also seeking ways to reduce our prison population and reintegrate non-violent folks into society. I’ll also support drug treatment courts and diversion programs that find alternative ways to rehabilitate non-violent criminals without simply throwing them in prison.

No matter where you live in Missouri, the root causes of crime are the same: a lack of educational and work opportunities, along with drug addiction and poverty. Addressing these basic issues must always be central in any conversation about crime.

A strong economy is one that works for everyone. As your state rep, I’ll fight for those who truly build up our economy—our workers—for the wages, benefits, and protections they deserve. I’ll support investments in educational opportunities to support a 21st century workforce. I'll support labor unions in their effort to utilize their collective bargaining power.

I’ll work for policies that support local businesses who provide good jobs in our state and keep our economy growing. And I’ll work to bring new businesses here that want to capitalize on our skilled Missouri workforce and quality of life. But I’ll always put workers’ interests before the special interests of large corporations.

The Republican party consistently runs on a promise of lower taxes, but they really mean lower taxes for corporations, and regressive tax systems for everyone else that seem fair but disproportionately impact low-income and rural Missourians. That's why I don't support the legislation passed by our Republican supermajority to increase gas taxes. It hurts the people who need the most help.

Another regressive tax with disproportionate effects is grocery tax. Missouri is one of just 13 states that still impose sales tax on essential groceries. This is something that we can fix right away to help ease the pockets of those struggling with skyrocketing grocery bills during the current wave of inflation.

The common response from the right is that we need that money. And we do. But we wouldn't if we increased our corporate tax rate to reflect the needs of our state. Our current corporate tax rate is among the lowest in the country at 4%. Do you see a rush to move corporate headquarters to Missouri? No, because that's not how those decisions are really made. Corporations choose to headquarter in states for many reasons and the top of the list is quality of life. I love this state but we don't currently have a high quality of life by any measurable standard. Another method I do support, to make up for that revenue, is to pass measures to legalize sports betting and recreational marijuana.

Every person should have the autonomy to make decisions about their body and their life. In the state of Missouri, you currently cannot get an abortion unless you are dying. The law passed in 2019 that outlawed abortion is vague in its language and barbaric in its intention. There are no exceptions for rape or incest, there are no exceptions for age. Any child in this state who is raped and becomes pregnant is left to rely on her family's ability to scrape up the funds to get her to Illinois. This is unacceptable, this is wrong, this is not pro-life.

If the goal of the Republican leadership is truly to reduce the number of abortions, there are very clear legislative paths to do so. The most important factors are the availability of contraception, sex education, healthcare, and childcare access. As a representative, I will support and work to expand access to the resources that are desparately needed by Missouri's struggling families, policies that are actually pro-life.

Every year for the past two decades, the Missouri Non-Discrimination Act (MONA) has been filed, only to be blocked by Republicans. MONA would allow basic protections to our LGBTQ community by adding sexual orientation and gender identity to Missouri’s Human Rights Act.

Missourians should not have to fear losing their jobs or being denied housing for who they love—discrimination that is currently completely legal in our state.

Meanwhile, Republicans in recent years have also passed legislation that makes it easier for employers, landlords or businesses to discriminate based on race, age, religion or gender—more so than in any other state.

As your state rep, I will work for a Missouri that welcomes people regardless of race, religion, gender, age or sexual orientation, and protects all people from discrimination.