Sen. Jason Bean (R-Holcomb) announced his re-election campaign this week. If granted a second term, his main focus will be economic development; he hopes to secure the remaining funding for the future Interstate 57 corridor, put Missouri’s right-to-work laws in the hands of counties and prohibit out-of-state water exports, among other things.
“Whether infrastructure, education, health care, that (economic development) encompasses a lot,” he said.
Bean serves the 25th District, encompassing Butler, Carter, Dunklin, Mississippi, New Madrid, Oregon, Pemiscot, Ripley, Stoddard and Wayne counties. He is the assistant majority floor leader of the Senate, chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, and a member of the Appropriations Committee and the Transportation, Infrastructure, and Public Safety Committee.
During his first term, he sponsored bills reforming eminent domain and banning texting while driving.
“If you look at the state of Missouri, where it’s located in the United States, we’re kind of a highway for transmission lines going across. So when a transmission line goes across the company can work with a landowner and try to come to a solution,” Bean explained. “If they can’t come to one then the company can use the right of eminent domain. What we did was say if you’re going to use that right, there’s going to be rights that the landowner has, and one example is they would value the property at 150% of the value.”
This law also mandates transmission lines “drop power” to communities in Missouri on their way through, he added.
Bean described the Hands-Free Law as another legislative success. He sponsored the original bill, which was signed into law in August. Before that time, texting and driving was only illegal for drivers under age 21. Bean sponsored a bill to ban texting for all drivers and require anyone behind the wheel to use hands-free technology rather than holding a cell phone or other device.
Both of these bills had long odds, Bean said.
“Everybody said, ‘There’s no way to pass it’s been tried and tried and tried,’ but we passed it,” he said.
A press release stated Bean’s investments into Southeast Missouri and the Bootheel included securing funding for the University of Missouri Fisher Delta Research Center and the Boys & Girls Club of the Heartland. The latter received $4 million, he said.
Also in this term, Bean brought on Poplar Bluff native Kyle Aubuchon.
“We’re excited to bring Kyle Aubuchon on as my new chief of staff. Kyle has a tremendous amount of respect and has a tremendous amount of experience not only in the district but in Jefferson City,” said Bean.
Bean’s ongoing priorities include support for law enforcement, agriculture, education and rural health care.
Two other bills — SB 599 and SB 54 — are still in consideration and will continue to be priorities if Bean is reelected.
“A bill that we’re going to work on for next year, would be to say that you cannot export water out of Missouri. We do a tremendous job of maintaining our water here in Missouri. To have, number one, good quality water, also to have water for our communities, for agriculture,” Bean said on SB 599.
He pointed to western states facing water shortages and claimed some are already looking at Missouri for resources.
“We’ll take care of the people in Missouri first, and that’s what we want to do,” he said.
Placing right-to-work laws within county jurisdiction is the purpose of SB 54. Bean said counties bordering Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky are seeing industry leave Missouri for those states because Missouri’s right-to-work law is statewide.
In a county-by-county model, “if a company decides to vote in a union, what it says is you can still work there without being part of the union. That’s all it says. It does not say you can’t have a union,” he said.
Bean is a fifth-generation Missourian and family farm owner. He attended the University of Missouri – Columbia where he majored in agronomy and minored in animal science. He was elected to the State Senate in 2020.
“It’s an honor to serve the people of the 25th,” he said.
Bean’s office can be reached at 573-751-4843 and through his official Senate webpage at senate.mo.gov/Bean to provide assistance or answer questions about state government.