John Leykamp
DemocraticQ1 In their 2024–2025 report, the Missouri Office of Rural Health reported that 42% of counties in MO do not have a hospital. What policies, if any, do you plan to implement to address access to health care, primarily in rural areas?
“We need healthcare for all. The state and federal levels of government need to change their financial priorities to place more support for healthcare. The population in some of these counties are pretty low and cannot support a hospital. We need to look at better ways to quickly transport patients to hospitals and look at emergency triage clinics in rural areas.”
Q2 The Missouri Department of Agriculture has reported that Agriculture and related industries have contributed 93.7 billion dollars in economic output and 456,618 jobs to Missouri in 2021. Would you continue to develop and support agtech business in Missouri as well as the education and scientific training for Missourians to contribute to this industry? Why or why not?
“Yes. Agriculture is a large portion of our states income. Education is an investment in our future.”
Q3 America has a growing AI industry, supporting cutting-edge innovation but raising issues of resource use, privacy, and economics. In your opinion, what are the costs and benefits of new data center construction in Missouri and how would your policies accomplish a balance between them?
“I am concerned about water and energy consumption. I think Data centers should Statee renewable water sources such as lakes or rivers instead of drilling deep wells. They should have to provide their own energy sources instead of draining local regions of electricity. Green energy would be ideal.”
Q5 What are your opinions on the current state of science literacy, and how could K-12 education standards be adapted to improve the public understanding of and relationship building in science?
“Missouri is 49th in money spent per student in public schools, 48th and 49th in teacher pay We need to do better! Education is an investment in our future.”