Josh Smead

“I am an architect, so I see a lot of solutions in the built environment. I want to invest infrastructure money into hospitals and birthing centers to work to reduce the hour-plus drive time a lot of people in rural north Missouri experience when they need emergency care. I want to explore new methods of getting people healthcare access, such as infill clinics to help with some of the abandoned and blighted buildings across rural America. I think we need to explore new methods as well, such as standalone emergency rooms and a more robust mobile platform and hub/spoke method to cover large areas. It is more dangerous today to give birth in north Missouri than it was 40 years ago, and it is abundantly clear that Sam Graves and the Republican leadership would rather give large tax cuts to the wealthy and large corporations rather than ensuring people have access to healthcare. It is 2026 in America, we need to be taking steps forward to make care more accessible for everyone rather than overseeing hospital closures. People like Sam Graves wonder why populations are declining in rural areas, but then he also supports the closing of hospitals and apparently does not see the connection between reliable healthcare and people wanting to raise their families in a community. I want to fix that!”

“I would absolutely support agricultural research and economic development for agricultural markets. We need a Congress that will reign in the President and the disastrous trade and tariff policy from the Trump administration. I have spoken with many farmers across north Missouri, and I hear repeatedly that the unstable export environment due to the tariff policies have taken a large toll on their farms. We need a reliable federal government that works to expand markets rather than instigating trade wars that close them. I also support programs such as SNAP and USAID which provides reliable business to farms so that American agricultural products can feed hungry people domestically and abroad. A reliable business environment would go a long way to help farms who are already under considerable stresses. I support research and advancements in agriculture to promote healthier sustainable farming and the reduction of pesticides, cover crops and regenerative farming, and other new practices that will help our farmland stay healthy for future generations. No matter the personal politics, farmers I have spoken with across the district want to help ensure the local environment is clean and healthy so the future of America continues to have a strong agricultural base. Programs through institutions such as the MU extension does research and needs support so the next generation of farmers can help us tackle the issues we face today.”

“I am concerned about the large scale data center facilities that are being proposed across rural north Missouri. These facilities have undefined water and electrical consumption demands, and it appears that these large technology companies are targeting rural areas for these data centers since they believe there will be less local opposition. I believe America needs to be cutting-edge and maintain the lead on AI technology so we stay ahead of our adversaries, but the need for advancement must be balanced with the need for preserving our local communities. As an example, there is a large data center in planning up in Nodaway county. This is advertised as a $4 billion project. I have spent a large portion of my career working on large scale sports and entertainment projects such as NFL stadia and NBA arenas, and I can definitively say that if a project has a $4 billion budget then they have the resources for due diligence to ensure local groundwater is not damaged and the people who live in the area are not picking up the tab for electrical grid demands. I want to promote due diligence for these projects and help put protections in place at the federal level so that small towns are not overpowered by large tech firms.”

“I am a strong believer in facts and science, so I would want to refer to the experts of their fields when making decisions. For example, for agricultural policy I would want to partner with and learn from the MU extensions and make sure that federal policy changes have the highest and best impact for what makes the most sense in Missouri. An issue I see is the topic of glyphosate used at a large scale. We see politicians like Sam Graves working to remove clean water protections and in support of Bayer getting immunity from cancers caused by glyphosate use, so he is willing to take an anti-science approach to policy if he gets enough money from large corporate ag interests who tell him what to do. I am here first and foremost to do good work for the people of north Missouri, and I will not sell them out to large corporate interests in the same way our current elected officials do. You do not have to be a chemical scientist to see the cancer catastrophe unfolding in Iowa, and here in north Missouri we have many rivers which feed polluted water down into our state. We need to balance industrial agricultural production with long term health for people and the environment.”

“I would like to expand K-12 STEM education if at all possible from the federal level. I believe our current defund-the-schools Republican politicians want to prevent people from accessing high-quality education since they believe uneducated masses are easier to manipulate. Our current Republican leadership in Jefferson City and Washington DC are working to dismantle public education and make it harder for young people to improve themselves. Instead of investing in our future with our public schools, the Republican politicians are defunding the Department of Education at the federal level and destroying Missouri’s finances at the local level. It is worth pointing out that the Republicans in my race are funded by the Herzog Foundation which buys politicians in Missouri so they can funnel taxpayer money to private religious schools. I support a federal ban on public taxpayer money being gifted to private religious schools. The lie we keep hearing is about ‘school choice’, but there is no choice when someone from Scotland county has a private school voucher and no private schools within an hour drive. The Republicans are funneling our taxpayer money to wealthy private school kids while our public schools literally collapse like the school gym did in Davies county last fall. I strongly support public education and the betterment of our future generations.”