SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — With Crystal Quade terming out of Missouri House District 132, residents in downtown and northwest Springfield are guaranteed a new representative come November.
OzarksFirst spoke to both candidates about their platforms with less than six weeks until the election.
Jeremy Dean is the Democratic candidate, trying his hand at the state legislature after a failed run at Springfield City Council in April 2023.
“There’s a lot that we can do not only at the city level, but we can help our city from the state level. We just have to have an advocate that focuses on that, and so that’s what pushed me to run for the state office,” Dean said.
Senate candidates butt heads during forum He says his previous work experience and his perspective of the government from 2020 to now also impacted his decision.
“Watching our state government really fail at a lot of things, specifically when it came to COVID-19 protocols, making sure that we kept our children in our communities safe, and when Roe versus Wade was overturned, I saw the medical fallout of that within an actual medical clinic. I saw women suffer because of their unjustified emotions and decisions that people made up in Jefferson City,” Dean said.
Dean adds he’d like to continue building on what Quade will have to leave behind.
“We needed somebody in there that was going to continue the fight that she’s put forward for us and make sure that we’ve got a strong advocate in Jefferson City,” Dean said.
Controversy surrounding Christian County Library District concerns residents OzarksFirst asked Dean about the pillars of his campaign.
“Number one is going to be cost of living. That kind of breaks down into several points, but my number one within that’s going to be housing. Making sure that we’re bringing back investments, making a culture that brings good investment into Springfield, that’s going to help us all the way from creating no-barrier shelters that are [a] holistic approach so that people can get the resources that they need to be successful in our community all the way to low-income housing, middle-income housing, to high-income housing, to make sure that we can keep our college students in in Springfield after they graduate and continue to grow our economy through high-income earners,” Dean said. “On top of that, it’s also funding our education system. I realize that we have to invest in our education. We have to support our schools where they need to support. We can’t continue to do unfunded mandates. So making sure that we’re fully funding our schools and keeping public dollars in our public schools. My third largest one that’s going to be making sure that we’re fighting for working families when it comes to workers rights, making sure that they have benefits and pay that is equitable to what they need here in the city of Springfield to live a happy and justified and dignified life.”
Republican candidate Stephanos Freeman isn’t new to politics either.
He ran for state office in 2022, losing to Quade in District 132, and lost in the primary to current District 131 State Rep. Bill Owen in the 2020 primary.
Freeman hopes voters will see that perseverance in a positive light.
“I think it probably paid off a bit in the primary. [Maybe] they realized I got a lot of fight in me,” Freeman said.
Freeman’s platform is more focused on having less government intervention.
“That’s basically the idea, is that the more people can help themselves, the better off they are, because quite frankly, the government’s not always gonna be able to provide,” Freeman said.
Missouri Department of Conservation wants to buy your seeds Freeman describes himself as a hard worker, mentioning before our interview, he was actually in the middle of changing the transmission fluid on a car, but also describes himself as a laid-back guy.
“I’ve always been a working-class guy. My friends describe me as well, they tend to agree that I have a breadth of knowledge and lots of different things, a pretty affable guy,” Freeman said.
It’s not a shock that Freeman himself, and maybe others, would view him as an outsider when it comes to politics.
“That’s one of the reasons why a lot of folks, even within my own party, sometimes don’t like me. I call it out and I call it how I see it, and it’s a lot of it’s just manipulation or just an echo chamber where people just agree, agree, agree,” Freeman adds.
However, this race has a legal cloud hovering over it, waiting to rain down at maybe any moment.
Freeman is suing Dean to have Dean removed from the ballot in Cole County.
Why?
Freeman believes, in part based on a conversation that he claims to have had with Dean, that Dean doesn’t meet the state’s requirements to be a candidate in the District 132 race.
“I asked him when he moved in and he said it was only six months ago, and you’re supposed to be here for a year to represent [the district],” Freeman said. “I don’t think just moving in, you can really represent the people because you haven’t lived the same lifestyle as they have. You haven’t lived the same life.”
Dean disagrees with any accusation of ineligibility.
“I have met all the requirements that I need to in order to be running for this race,” Dean said.
“I left the courthouse with one minute left. I wrote what you seen up in 20 minutes without having ever filed a petition before,” Freeman said.
Freeman had submitted a handwritten petition on September 10, the day of the deadline to have any names removed from voter ballots.
Dean and his attorney filed a motion to dismiss within days.
“We’re fully confident that the court will make the right decision in this. There are several things wrong with his lawsuit, including the timeliness of it. Ballots are already being printed as well. It’s just incorrect,” Dean said. “The evidence that he uses is not really true. We are just waiting for the court to make their decision and not one which we fully expect will be dismissed.”
Freeman took to social media, posting an opposition on his campaign Facebook page, outlining his desire to not have the case thrown out.
We’ll continue to follow the suit and provide updates as we learn them.
The election is November 5.
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