Carrier: Good afternoon. I am Leslie Carrier with the League of Women Voters of Southwest Missouri, which is one of the nonpartisan organizations that make up the Informed Voter Coalition. Today, we are focusing on the race for Missouri House District 132. Candidates are Incumbent Representative Jeremy Dean and Russ Gosselin. Gosselin was unable to join us this round due to scheduling issues. First of all, Jeremy, thank you for joining us. Let's begin by having you introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run again for this office. And you have one minute.
Dean: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. My name is Representative Jeremy Dean. I've been proudly serving the people of the 132nd District, which is downtown in northwest Springfield, for the last two years in the Missouri House, primarily focusing on cost of living, specifically in the housing sector, making sure that we're fully funding our public schools and then making sure that people can make their own decisions in life, whether that's who they love, the health care that they receive or what they do in their own home. And I have a background in Springfield. I've lived here my entire life. Graduated from Willard schools and then went to the University of Central Missouri. Came back here to Springfield, worked in the health care sector and then moved over to a housing nonprofit before I was elected. Took a lot of what I learned in those areas, understood what people were really struggling with and how we can make that better at the state level. And I've been proud to be doing that work ever since.
Carrier: As data center development expands across the country, communities have raised questions about their purpose, the economic benefits, resource demands and local impacts. What role do you believe data centers should play in our region, and how should policymakers balance their potential economic and technological benefits with concerns about water use and quality, air quality, noise, electricity costs and demand and the loss of agricultural land?
Dean: Yeah, absolutely. It is a huge topic right now. Like many things, I truly believe that this is one of those — an example of something that is best decided closest at home. When it comes to the state level, I truly believe that we play a role when it comes to making the surface level regulation. And so that's going to be things like water control, making sure that they're not using too much or contaminating the water to where it's not able to be used anymore, making sure we're putting the things in place to help those local municipalities and those counties to have the regulation and the support that they need. Right now, in Springfield, I feel that we are well suited at the city level to take care of this issue, but we see a lot of our rural communities and small towns that truly need the support. And so that's what I've been focused on a lot, is making sure that our departments, such as the Economic Development Department or the Conservation Department, the environmental sector, that they have the resources that they need. And I think that's what we should focus on at the state level, so that whenever those counties and those municipalities come to us, we have the resources to supply them, to make sure that they are getting the best community benefit possible if that's what those local citizens and their elected officials decide. But at the end of the day, I truly believe that those decisions are best made close at home, such as the city council, the board of aldermen or the county level, whatever that may be. And that's that the state level should play that role to support them as much as we can.
Carrier: What role should citizen led initiative petitions play in Missouri's policy making process? And what, if any, reforms would you support regarding how voter approved measures can be changed or overturned by the legislature?
Dean: Yeah, thank you for that question. The citizen initiative petition process, I think, should play as much as a role as the citizens decide that it should. That is one of those processes that I think is in place to be outside of the legislature, and I don't think that we should play a hand in how often or how or what the citizens choose to do in that. However, we should respect the will of the voters whenever they do choose to use that. When it comes to changing the initiative petition process at this time, there's no way that I would support, especially with the current leadership in Jefferson City. With Amendment 4, we saw what that looked like. Over 80% of Missourians came out and said that they did not like the plan, that the Republican supermajority pushed in front of them. And so I just can't trust right now that it would be in the best interest of the citizens to change that.
Carrier: Amendment 3 would repeal the Reproductive Rights Amendment voters approved in 2024 and replace it with a ban that includes exceptions for medical emergencies, fetal anomaly, rape and incest under 12 weeks. It would also add a constitutional ban on gender affirming medical care for minors. How will you vote on
Amendment 3, and given that the gender affirming care provision largely duplicates existing law, what do you see as its actual practical effect if passed?
Dean: Yeah. So I will be not supporting Amendment 3 this year. I believe that when Amendment 3 was passed in 2024, voters made themselves very clear on how they felt with who should be making the decisions about themselves when it comes to abortion and reproductive health care, and that's the patient and their doctor. When it comes to politicians being involved, we should have no role when it comes to those decisions, period. When it comes to the transgender issue. You're right whenever you say it does already duplicate state law. That is already illegal, and we would be the first state in the country to have a constitutional ban on something like that. It's unprecedented. It's unheard of, and it's unnecessary. This simply is using a scapegoat. They're using a very vulnerable population to try and trick people into voting to get rid of their own rights. It's something that unfortunately we see time and time again out of Jefferson City. I think the people understand that. We have seen a lot of things such as ballot candy or misleading language on the ballot. And unfortunately, they are becoming accustomed to that, being able to recognize it, but at the end of the day, I think it has genuinely no effect other than the fact that it will ban abortion again for people who should have the right to make that decision in Missouri.
Carrier: A 2025 state law allows utility companies to charge customers for power plants that are still under construction. Do you support keeping, repealing or amending that law, and what specific change would you make if you could rewrite it?
Dean: Yeah, I did not support that law when it came through the legislature the first time. I believe we're talking about Senate Bill 4, which included quip. The main reason that I did not support that bill was because we could see through the, through one of the nonprofits that operates nonpartisanly in Jefferson City, a consumer protection nonprofit, that it was going to raise bills roughly $1,000 per household across the state per year. Aat this time, there's no way that I could support something that's going to raise costs for my constituents, especially by that amount. And at the end of the day, when we look back at this legislation when it was passed, that was the bill that really opened the door and kind of invited data centers to start looking at the state of Missouri. And so, if citizens are concerned about that or they're concerned about cost being passed on to them, there is a roll call vote on that whenever we did that in the House and in the Senate. And I would recommend that they take a look to see how their legislators voted on that and whether they would support that. But I would absolutely support repealing CWIP, which is the construction work in progress, making sure that we can bring down costs and utilities, groceries, all of those things as my top priority, and I think that's something that we could do as soon as we get back to Jefferson City that would have a direct effect on families across our state.
Carrier: What is the most important quality you think a successful local elected official should have, and how would you demonstrate that quality if reelected?
Dean: Yeah, I think the best quality that you can have is the advocacy quality, the ability to go up there, understand who you're up there fighting for, being willing to do that and being willing to do it in the right way. A lot of times we see people in Jefferson City kind of lose the way of what they're doing up there, who they're fighting for. Sometimes we're thinking about our next elections, and I think that when it comes to being a good advocate, you remember who put you there in the first place, and that's the people of the state of Missouri, the people of the 132nd District. I remembered every day I stayed across the river whenever I lived up in Jefferson City during session. And so I would cross over the Roy Blunt Bridge. Senator Roy Blunt brought back the, the financing for that bridge, and we are lucky enough to have Senator Roy Blunt as a citizen here in the city of Springfield. And it was one of those reminders every single day that, no matter what I was thinking personally, no matter what I thought, I was always here to serve the people of the 132nd District, the people of Springfield, and crossing over that bridge reminded me that I may not always agree with what my constituents want, and they may not always agree with me, but at the end of the day, I'm there to serve them and advocate for them. And I think that's the number one thing that we should focus on.
Carrier: And to conclude, please tell us what your top priorities will be if you are reelected and you have two minutes.
Dean: Yeah. So kind of hit on this at the beginning, but number one is cost of living. I knocked doors almost every single day. And that's the number one thing that I hear from my constituents is the cost of living is out of control. Whether we're talking about housing, groceries, insurance, your ability to afford childcare, the costs are going up higher at what people are able to afford. And we've really got to do what we can to bring down those costs. I'm specifically focused on bringing back resources and support to bring housing, more affordable housing, more accessible and safer housing, to Springfield, specifically northwest Springfield, so we can continue to grow our population and make sure that people have healthy and safe homes. On top of that, it's our public schools. We've seen the push over the last few years to send money to the private schools, which the legislature did for the first time this last session. I opposed that. I believe that our public dollars belong in public schools and that we should be doing everything we can to make sure that every child has access to a quality public education. Making sure that people can make their own decisions in life, whether that's who they love, the, the health care that they receive, what they do in their own home, the religion that they practice. It's simply not the government's job to control people's everyday life. And so I will continue to fight for that. And then it's upholding the will of the voters in 2024 when voters passed paid sick leave. That was one of the first things that we did in Jefferson City was the Republican supermajority came in and overturned and took away that paid sick leave from the citizens. I was proud to co-sponsor that bill when Representative Betsy Fogle sponsored it, to put that back in place. And I'll continue to fight to uphold the will of the voters when it comes to abortion and workers' rights in this state as well. So that's what I'm focused on. I think that those are things that all of my constituents would really like to see changed in the state of Missouri, and I hope that we can get to work doing those things.
Carrier: Jeremy, that concludes our interview. Thank you very much for taking time to talk with us again today.
Dean: Thank you.