Republican Kurtis Gregory wants to move to greener pastures in the Missouri Legislature. He is running for the Missouri Senate District 21 seat.
The district is currently represented by term-limited Senator Denny Hoskins.
Gregory, a former Mizzou football player, was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives in 2020.
“I’ve worked with a lot of different people on the football field, different socioeconomic status, race, religion, the whole nine yards and the gamut of it. But at the end of the day on Saturday nights, there was 11 on the field at the same time and none of that mattered. We’re just trying to move to a certain goal,” he said. “And that’s what we’re going to do down in Jeff City is, you know, take all those things, throw them to the side and make good policy for the citizens of the state of Missouri.”
He describes himself as a country guy with a hard work ethic who believes in preserving Second Amendment Rights, going to church on Sundays, and opposes abortion.
Gregory is a crop farmer. If elected, some of his priorities would be fighting for the agriculture and business communities.
“It’s just natural that agriculture would be one of my top focuses,” he said. “The business climate staying out of small businesses way to let them go and prosper, so to speak. Keeping this broadband expansion train going. I think maybe that’s going to be key to saving small rural Missouri – is getting broadband out there because you have these people that want to open up small businesses, but yet they can’t run a credit card machine. Maybe you’ve got folks in the city that want to come out to a small town and open up a business and one of these nice beautiful historic buildings we have in some of these small towns, but they don’t have the internet to be able to run the business like they want,” he said.
Gregory wants farmers and ranchers to be equipped to feed the world.
“To be able to more accurately track your data, I think we just pay huge dividends in increasing yield because one of the biggest things talked about is we’ve got to double our food or grain and crop production by the year 2050,” he said.
He also wants Missouri to become an open enrollment state.
“I think that makes a lot of sense to where the school districts are going to be able to opt in to accepting kids,” said Gregory. “I think it’s odd that we’re still defining where you can go to school at based on your zip code or school district.”
Gregory has been successful in passing a variety of policies while serving in the House.
“Name, image, likeness, where college athletes can receive compensation for going out and doing an ad for the local car dealership or a restaurant in town. Then as far as other bills, I played a part in the big ag bill the governor signed on special session last fall – had a couple of provisions in that. The bill my very first year was an insurance piece. It was geared towards the Amish community and certificates of self-insurance,” he said.
As for the most rewarding thing he’s accomplished while in the legislature, Gregory said it is allowing food to be sent home to kids in after school care, through places like the YMCA and summer camps.
“All we had to do is add one extra checkbox to a form and now I know that the food is going to kids that need it, because there’s a lot of kids that go hungry at night. That one little thing has made everything worth it. Just knowing that I’m helping to get food into the hands of kids that need it,” said Gregory.
Rep. Doug Richey, R-Excelsior Springs, has also jumped in the race.
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