50th Missouri House District: Sara Walsh

Party: Republican

Opponent: Kari Chesney

Residence: Ashland

Occupation: State representative

Education: Master's in public affairs, University of Missouri; bachelor's in business administration and marketing, Columbia College; associate's in business administration, Columbia College

Previous political experience: State representative since 2017, including membership on budget, crime prevention and fiscal review committees.

Family: Husband Steve

What is your position on Amendment 3, which would roll back parts of the Clean Missouri amendment voters approved in 2018?

Well, the most important thing in a district is to keep communities together. And Amendment 3 does just that. So I'm very supportive of Amendment 3. I think that we need to get the word out and help educate people on what it exactly does.

And so I voted for SJR 38, that put that on the ballot and was in support of it.

How will Medicaid expansion affect the 50th District?

Well, the bad thing about that amendment, Medicaid expansion, is that the people who crafted that together really weren't fully transparent. They didn't include a funding mechanism. And if they had more voters would have been able to realize that this is going to result in either increased cuts to existing programs or increased taxes, because there's got to be some way to pay for this huge increase in this government program. I was a strong no on that. And throughout most of my district, especially in the rural communities, folks are a no as well.

It's going to do just that it's going to cause us on the House Budget Committee then to have to deal with finding funding for it, which will then impact District 50 and districts throughout the state. As we find either cuts, or you know, the other alternative is increased taxes, you know, we can always consider that. But that's something that I really don't feel that voters would support, as they have recently turned down any kind of tax increases that have been put on a statewide ballot.

Has the state done enough to fight COVID-19?

So as a member of the House Budget Committee, I was part of the folks that have actually looked at the federal funding and supported that, that went to districts throughout the state. At this point, where it really lies is the counties. The counties have until towards the end of the year to spend that funding, if they don't they lose it. So it's going to be imperative.

I know Senator (Caleb) Rowden has been very outspoken about the importance and urgency for in Boone County, one of the two counties in his district, and ... in District 50, that they find ways to make sure that they are spending that and getting that out the door before we would lose that funding.

So with regards to COVID ... there have been a lot of businesses that have been impacted and jobs, and once you impact that, then there's childcare issues. So that's something that I think we do should take a look at as much as possible. We need to work with our businesses, and, and schools to be able to get, you know, help parents have options and be able to get kids to school and take a look at childcare as well. And then make sure that businesses are able to get all the support that we can give them so that they can reopen and re-employ people and safely get people back to work.

Specifically what do you think about the way health orders have been handled?

From a statewide level, as Gov. Parson has said, time and time again ... there's a lot of diversity throughout the state. So to make just a statewide kind of cut-and-dry approach.

... I know there's there are some folks that are saying, well, we need to go back to shut everything down. As it is businesses are suffering and people are having a very tough time. So I think it's one of those things where, again, people have been educated, there's more PPE that's available, people are playing it safe. And we're not seeing in rural communities ... drastically spiking numbers. Interestingly enough, as we get more data, I think that's going to help inform more decisions.

But no, I'm of the mindset that you know that we are learning more about this virus, we're learning more about how it affects people, but that we need to work to find ways to safely get people back to work and to get things reopened and to get children back in schools. ... Some parents have chosen, you know, through all this, they kind of like having kids home and maybe even chosen to homeschool. That's actually on the rise throughout the nation and in Missouri. So parents have that choice there. But I think as much as possible, we need to be able to try to get things back, get back to business.

The Missouri General Assembly took up legislation to address violent crime this summer and the issue is likely to come up again. What should the General Assembly do to address the problem?

So the General Assembly did two things working with the governor to address violent crime. Two house bills that we passed and that were passed by the Senate and so are on the way to the governor, I imagine he will very soon sign those into law. One of them deals with witness protection and creating a program that law enforcement can be able to put witnesses in, keep them safe. There's a federal program that does that. This is going to help that be done at the state level. And we will have another special session as the governor said sometime in October to provide the funding for that program. And hopefully, that will help people be able to testify and they can solve those crimes. If people feel safe that they're not going to lose their lives in testifying ... when they were witness to a crime.

The other part of that is helping law enforcement in the residency requirement, removing that in St. Louis. So letting folks be able to, you know, with as long as they live within an hour to be able to be on the police force, and that's going to help immensely because they have a shortage of I think it's more than 140 officers there. And so with homicides going up, that was one of the governor's priorities, and I'm very proud that ... as a member of the House being able to support that, get those two bills across the finish line. There were three other bills that didn't quite make it through. As it turned out, as we kind of looked into them a little more, there are a lot of questions from constituents and some potential, maybe unintended consequences. But as the speaker of the House and the House leadership said, we will continue working with the governor next session on those priorities.