Full interview with House District 59 candidate Becky Kroll

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

Becky Kroll hopes that she can flip the 59th House District as the Democratic nominee on Nov. 3.

Kroll is a Cole County native who says she understands the needs of rural Missouri. She plans to take the issues she learned about and help change them if elected as a representative for House District 59.

MELISSA HOUSTON: So first, can you tell me about yourself and why you're running for this? As well as your name?

BECKY KROLL: Okay, my name is Becky Kroll. I am running for House District 59 in Cole County. And a little bit about myself: I am from Cole County, born and raised. I went to school at JC High School, and I went to college at Lincoln University. So I'm literally a Jeff City, Cole County girl.

I moved away from the area when I was about 23, and I stayed away until I was 38. I worked in places like St. Louis, Cape Girardeau, Poplar Bluff, Sikeston, Dexter. I even worked in Illinois for a little while, and I learned a lot about being in rural spaces because I was literally in the most rural parts of our state.

LINK: Interview with Republican candidate Carrie Tergin

So while I was doing all of that stuff, I just kept accumulating data in my brain of all of the things that I saw, and what I saw in southeast Missouri was a very financially poor area where education and health care were always very scarce. And so that always concerned me. When I moved home to take care of my mom back in 2018, I decided that I was going to start getting a little bit more involved because I wasn't working crazy hours for retail. I was actually just doing a normal daytime job. So I started getting involved more in my community and the more I got involved, the more I noticed that the same problems were here, that we have, health care accessibility issues and that we have education where we're losing money constantly.

I decided to run very late in the game. I was planning on it eventually at some point in the future, but I said, "Well, if you're going to do it, this is the year to do it."

So I signed the paperwork, and it's been a wild ride ever since.

HOUSTON: And then what do you see as the most important issue facing District 59, and how would you address it?

KROLL: So there are a lot of issues.

We are primarily rural, which means that we make a lot of money off of agriculture, but we do have a lot of people that just aren't farmers. We have pockets of population. So there are a couple of things that worry me in our area. All of our hospitals are in the Jeff City area. We lack rural health care, and that's across the state. It's not just in Cole County, but if you go down to places like Eugene and in St. Thomas, you're going to find it's a little bit harder to get a doctor's appointment.

And then we also have the surrounding counties, which are also lacking in hospitals. So that's an issue. If you're getting a doctor's appointment anytime recently, you'll notice that there's a long wait. Then there's public education. And with budget cuts in the last budget of close to $200 million-plus, I started going to school board meetings when I started running, and they were cutting transportation because that's an easy place to cut.

But there is a point where it's no longer just a transportation issue. It's not just tightening your belt; you're asking for them to lose teachers, lose staff, to lose support staff, to cut services. And when you have kids that need extra help, where are we cutting? And often it's with those kids that need the most help.

HOUSTON: And then do you think public education, like you were saying, is properly funded in Missouri?

KROLL: No.

HOUSTON: What would you do to address it?

KROLL: I don't even have to wait on that question; no, it's not. When I went to the school board meetings, I watched a master class in negotiations for a pre-K program for 3- and 4 year olds at Russellville. And I watched as they figured out how to make that work on their budget, understanding what it was going to cost their school. And they did it because they knew how important it was. So I'm appreciative of the school boards that are taking the time to really look at those numbers, but they shouldn't be struggling.

We make a promise when we have a community that says we're going to make sure that we build the future, and education is the first step in that. So if we keep cutting and keep cutting, eventually we're going to find we don't have a viable workforce. Every cut you make now shows up in 20 years. It is an investment. Every single time you put a dollar out of education and put it somewhere else, you're taking that investment away, and you're shortchanging somebody's future.

HOUSTON: And then what state rules, if any, would you add to data center construction or regulation?

KROLL: Oh, there's a lot. To keep it brief, we need to put in legislation that addresses how infrastructure is going to be built around those. And additionally, the hierarchy of that infrastructure: who gets the power when there's a brownout, who gets the water when there's a drought? Because we're putting these into rural communities where people have wells. Who's going to do the testing on that water to make sure that you're not ruining the aquifers? Those are all really important things, and they are things that are not being addressed when we are steamrolling through small communities and putting data centers in.

I think that we have a responsibility to put the legislation in before we even start putting the shovel into the ground, because if we don't, these quick-fix data centers that we're putting up in 20 years may be a huge problem, but we won't know for 20 years because we didn't bother to do our homework beforehand.

So with data centers, I'm not anti-technology; I understand the purpose, but I want to make sure that we are not shortchanging our community and also not ruining our environment, because we can't push that off for the next generation to take care of, because we are already pushing so much onto them at this point anyway, especially with education and the lack of healthcare in our communities.

HOUSTON: And then what are your thoughts on redistricting with Proposition A, and what congressional maps do you personally lean towards?

KROLL: Well, honestly, I testified in the committee hearing. I was one of the 100 or so people that showed up at the Capitol to testify against redistricting. And the reason was because splitting Kansas City apart was not a great idea. I don't know a whole lot about Kansas City, but I do know this: I don't know enough about Kansas City to make decisions on who is going to be running the district, including Kansas City.

I do know stuff about St. Louis. I'm not super excited about being with St. Louis either, but at least there is some consistency there. And to change the rules in the middle of the game is what toddlers do, not legislators. So I think that the 2022 map is the more fair of the two maps, although with a slight disclaimer that that one is also heavily, heavily gerrymandered. So, not a fan of the 2022 map, but I'm more of a fan of the 2022 map than the 2025 one.

HOUSTON: And are there any other district issues that I did not mention that you believe need to be addressed?

KROLL: Oh, well, let's see. Rural health care, public education, No. 1. In the doors that I'm knocking, I'm hearing my taxes are too high; everything costs too much. And I don't think that's just a Cole County issue. I think that's across the state. I'm hearing about people's electric bills being too high, and when I knock on doors, I'm the daughter of a construction worker; I am the sister of a millwright; when I go to someone's door, I don't just look at the nice decorations on the porch. I look at the bones of the house, and I see more and more houses in disrepair in areas where 10 years ago they were almost pristine, perfect.

So I have concerns that we are slapping a nice coat of paint on stuff and pretending like everything's okay. But I also can see just in the infrastructure of people's homes that there's people that are struggling. So affordability, the cost of living, all of those things are in the forefront of my mind every time I knock on the door, just because I can see that people are having a little bit of trouble. And that's not everybody. You know, some doors are great, and there are some doors that I'm very careful where I step.

HOUSTON: And then what is your final message for voters heading to the ballots?

KROLL: Show up. Vote. Know your amendments. Know your propositions.

If you're in the Jeff City area, there is Prop 1 for the safety of the fire department and the police department here. I'm not well-versed on it, but I talked to firefighters the other day, and they are supportive of it. They need equipment. They need better salaries.

When it comes to the amendments, you know, I'm a firm believer that when the people speak, we should listen. That goes for Proposition A with the gerrymandering or redistricting; however you feel about that, with Amendment 3 and Amendment 6, I know that Amendment 7 and Amendment 8 aren't on a lot of people's radars, but I highly encourage you to go read about them, to even talk to your neighbors about them. They're not terribly long. They're not hard to read. So look at them, read them, make sure you understand exactly what they're asking you to do with a "yes" vote and a "no" vote on those.

HOUSTON: And then anything else you would like to share?

KROLL: I am very appreciative of every door that I have knocked, and I know that sounds a little strange. I've had some doors slammed in my face, but of the 2,000 or 3,000 doors that I have knocked and my volunteers have knocked, everybody has been gracious. And I appreciate that.

They have also been saying the same things: health care, education, affordability. So even if I'm not their choice, know that I am willing to work on all of those things, and I plan on listening to everybody. I may not agree with you. We may not agree with each other all the time, but my job isn't to tell you what to do. Your job is to say what you need. And my job is to try to figure out how to make that happen.