Fifth Congressional District candidate interview: Brad Patty
Six Republicans are competing in the August primary for the Fifth Congressional District seat. Taylor Burks, Rick Brattin, Brett Hueffmeier, Micah Beebe, Berton Knox and Brad Patty are all challenging incumbent Emanuel Cleaver, who has held the seat since 2005.
Congressional districts were redrawn in 2025 during a special session aimed at giving republicans an advantage in the U.S. House. The once-KC-centric district now stretches from the Kansas border to Osage County. It includes much of Boone County, and all of Cole County.
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Erika McGuire: To get started, what made you want to run for the Fifth Congressional District?
Brad Patty: I wanted to run because I wanted to continue to serve. During my time in the military, I would put on my uniform, people would say, "Thank you for serving your country," and I really enjoyed that. I felt like it was a Superman suit, but all things come to an end. I had to retire and go ahead and look at the future, and I see myself in politics being able to stand up for our youth. I think it is definitely a target, both of the left and the right, and I want to be a strong advocate for our youth. They are the hope of the next generation of America.
McGuire: What do you see as the biggest issue that is facing voters in the Fifth Congressional District right now?
Patty: Well, that's tough to say. There's a lot of different constituents, and they're going to give all sorts of different answers. So I don't want to do a cop out and say that there's not one specific one. I do know a unified one they're concerned about, and that is the actual boundaries of this district. Both Republicans and Democrats have been going back and forth through a legal process that's still ongoing. I'll just take this opportunity to speak on that. I'm the only candidate that lives in the district, and I do feel that as a veteran, I can represent rural, and I can also represent the city. I can bridge across Democrat and Republican. That's one of the few things left that we agree upon as veterans. Serving 25 years active duty and being the only candidate that lives in the district, I do feel that I could bring some peace, closure, and healing to this process because I know that there's strong opinions about it.
McGuire: A lot of Americans are having a tough time financially. How would you address the cost of living, including groceries, housing, and gas, right now for constituents?
Patty: Absolutely. So, affordability is one of my pillars that I'm running on, and I believe that the federal income tax needs to be reduced, even to the point of eliminating, if possible. I know there's some legalities involved, and I also know that politicians ask me, "How would you go ahead and backfill that money if the government is to lose that type of revenue?" And I say, "That's exactly what a politician would say."
If you reduce one tax and you go ahead and increase another tax, then you really haven't given a tax break. So I've estimated that if you take the 99% and below of earners and you eliminate the income tax, that would give anywhere from four to $600 on average to individuals, and everyone has a customized scenario that they have to deal with: healthcare, buying a vehicle, etc. I'm married with six kids, so I understand that stress. That will be able to empower each individual to solve their customized, individual problem if we can go ahead and reduce it to the point of even eliminating the income tax. I will do a little follow-up. I think we could also backfill half of the revenue lost by the GAO assumptions on fraud, waste, and abuse. So the Government Accountability Office has estimated about $500 billion in fraud, waste, and abuse -- that would be nearly half of the income tax reduction of revenue if we went ahead and eliminated for 1.6%, or I'm sorry, if we eliminated for 99% of the earners. So this could be done, and growth can fill the other gap.
But in short, reducing taxes, specifically on the income taxes, I believe, would give the biggest relief for affordability on individual families.
McGuire: Now turning to immigration. Immigration is a big thing right now. If you were elected, how do you plan to address immigration on the federal level?
Patty: So this is where I feel I'm one of the most qualified, if the most qualified candidate. My wife is from El Salvador. She came here legally, so did her family, and she earned her citizenship through allegiance and assimilation. We're looking at this from the wrong prism. We're looking at it from the left or the right, and we're arguing over these natures of who's correct, and we're polarizing one another. The reality is that we need to look at it from the actual legal immigrant's position. That is the standard in which we should be moving forward as a country.
My family did it the right way. My wife did it the right way. She was separated from her family for nearly 10 years. In order to do it the right way, I cannot let any other immigrant go ahead and get in front of line, get in the front of the line ahead of my wife. I just can't do it. I'm more than willing to have a conversation to decrease that 10-year process of separation, and how can we maximize an efficient and make this an efficient process. But as a whole, the standard is what the legal immigrants have done. Nobody else gets to do it a different way. They're the one that should be leading this process because they're doing it in a lawful manner.
McGuire: I just have two more questions now. If you are elected, what would be your top priority?
Patty: So, top priority. I have three. I'll give you my pro-life is a core issue of mine. The reason that it's a core issue is that our Declaration of Independence says we get inalienable rights given to us by our Creator: life, liberty, and a pursuit of happiness. Liberty, we had a civil war about, so we know that liberty is one that is firmly established now that everyone gets. I also believe that is the case for life. So that is definitely an important issue.
The other one is affordability, which we talked about. So I don't want to be redundant, but affordability is definitely one for families such as mine, an enlisted man in the military with six children, and the last one is accountability. Accountability is something that I think our government needs. Now, what can a legislator do at the federal level? I'll give one quick point that this can be done through criminal referrals. We see great social media videos of congressmen and congresswomen asking very snappy questions, even uncovering criminal activity, but nothing happens after that. That's because criminal referrals need to be sent to the attorney general. Now, the attorney general may or may not prosecute it, but I plan to continue to stack them on top of one another until the fourth branch of the government, which is you, Erika, will go ahead and shed light on that and announce it to the people and say, "Look how big this stack is." When are we going to do something about it? And the pressure will result in accountability.
McGuire: Is there anything that you want to touch base on that I didn't ask that you would like voters to know?
Patty: The only thing I would say is that I am a 25-year Army veteran. You folks have trusted me in uniform. I would ask that you would trust me also in the halls of Congress to defend our youth. We are both the Democrats and the Republicans are fighting for the youth, and they want to influence them and build up the correct nation. I believe I'm on the right side of that argument.
I also believe that me as a candidate living in the district makes me the most qualified individual. I find it just odd that there is no candidates that live in the district, and this is such a hotly debated topic about the actual boundaries of the district. I don't think that is the sole reason that I should be elected, but I do think it should at least be a starting point. We have experienced politicians being sent, or that are running for office, and I think that is the last thing that Washington, D.C., needs is an experienced politician. What we need is a soldier that just retired from the army a year ago, and someone who has character and will bring that to Washington, D.C. I plan to do that.
McGuire: I think that's it. Well, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it.
