New faces take the lead in local senate, representative seats

The dust has settled after the August primary election earlier this week, and the winners of Missouri’s 25th Senate District and 153rd House District races are working on their transition into those offices in January.

Neither faces a challenger in the November general election.

“It’s definitely an honor. It was truly a humbling night,” said Senator-elect Jason Bean of his primary win.

Darrell Atchison

Darrell Atchison, the Representative-elect, told the Daily American Republic on Tuesday he “campaigned very hard and met a lot of great people throughout the district. I just enjoyed meeting the people, and my idea of representing the district was to get out and meet the people.”

Both feel they ran a clean race, taking the high road in their quest for public office.

“As a farmer, I have been through many a flood, many a hail storm and many a wind storm, and I have learned how to persevere. I’ve learned that if you concentrate on the negatives, it’s hard to move forward, so I just didn’t concentrate on it,” said Bean of the Senate race, which turned negative early on.

“We kept on moving forward with our message,” he said.

Likewise, Atchison said, he wasn’t going to get wrapped up in negativity, though the House race never became ugly.

“I decided from the beginning that I wanted to talk about me and what I could offer as a state representative and stick with that message,” Atchison said.

Both already are making plans for when they are sworn into office.

“One of the first things I want to do is start with meeting our commissioners and listening to what their concerns are, what their priorities are, what their pluses and minuses are,” explained Bean. “I want to really get in touch with the counties and communities to start understanding where Sen. Jason Bean can do his best to help.”

Bean also wants to meet as many senators as possible because they are the ones he will be working with.

“I want to know who they are and their backgrounds because that’s how you get things done,” he said.

Jobs, Bean said, will be his top priority locally.

“Throughout the entire district, from corner to corner, I hear about the need for jobs. It’s that and workforce development,” said Bean.

Looking ahead, Bean noted, the state has some big challenges to face.

“COVID has hurt our economy, plus just the virus in general,” he said. “And, now that Amendment 2 has passed, that’s going to be another challenge.”

Atchison said he already has an eye and an ear out for things he considers to be big issues for the state.

“The immediate items to watch here in the district and statewide are COVID-19 and what’s going on with that, but also what’s going on around the state with the ideas of defunding the police. That’s not happening here, but as a representative on the statewide level, that will be something to monitor,” he said.

As far as the 153rd district, Atchison said, he will constantly be looking out for ways to improve people’s lives.

“Locally, any time you can be looking out for anything having to do with economic development or the school systems, agriculture and tourism … if I can improve them, they would be on my radar screen,” he said.