Fourth District candidate interviews: Mark Alford

U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler is vacating the Fourth Congressional District seat she’s held for more than a decade.

Hartzler’s run for U.S. Senate has left her House seat open in the November election, with seven Republicans rushing in to fill the vacuum. But they must win the August primary before they can move on to take on the Democratic and Libertarian candidates in November.

Mark Alford is a former TV reporter from Kansas City. His platform includes a promise to investigate the 2020 presidential election.

Lucas Geisler: What should people know about you?

Mark Alford: I am a recovering reporter. Okay. Yeah, I'm not a politician. And I'm going out in the Fourth District telling the stories of the people of rural Missouri really, to be the strongest, loudest voice I can be for them, not just in Washington, but in the national media, where they've been really underserved. For a long time, Lucas, the loudest voices out of Missouri have come from St. Louis, and Kansas City two Democrat congressional districts. And I'm here to tell you right now, there are eight districts in Missouri, six strong Republican districts. Those are the true voices of Missouri. And those are the voices I'm going to represent in Washington. And by the way, it's good to be back on a news set, I have not been on a news set in nine months.

Geisler: I do want to ask you about the district itself. What do you think about this? We’ve seen a lot of, you know, redrawing maps throughout this year to finally settle on this. Do you think suburban Kansas City, which is part of this district, really has much in common with northern Boone County and the western side here?

Alford: I tell you the way they divided it up, and it took the Senate long enough to do this, I was waiting for more than a year for them to come up with a map and everyone else in this race was as well so we can know exactly where we needed to be, who we needed to talk to, and who we needed to tell their stories. Everything in eastern Jackson County east of 7 highway there, which is pretty large portion of Jackson County is now in the Fourth Congressional District. It also moves to Lafayette County, and Saline County just above I-70 into the Fourth Congressional District. Now get this. We have 95,000 farms in the state of Missouri. Did you know that? That's a lot of soybeans and corn, that not just feed Missouri, not just feed the nation, but feed the world. A lot of those farms are in these communities, those two counties Lafayette, eastern Jackson and Saline, they were represented by Emanuel Cleaver out of the Fifth Congressional District. And so when you have urban concerns, like … Congressman Cleaver has, it's hard to get adequate representation. They felt for the longest time that they were underserved and undervalued. And when it came down, that they were going to be back in the Fourth Congressional District where they belong. It was like a party. And they were so exciting and welcoming to have someone like myself, who's going to be that strong voice for them.

Geisler: I want to ask you about some of the issues you have on your website, one of the first ones there is election integrity. We had Taylor Burks, former Boone County clerk, in here saying we need to move on from the 2020 election in talking about election integrity. What specifically do you want to look at?

Alford: Fair question, Lucas. You know, when you drive a car, the rearview mirror is a lot smaller than the windshield, because we need to look where we're going, it’s more important than where we've been. However, when something of such magnitude that we had of the 2020 election happens, we've got to fully investigate. And until we do, until we find out exactly went on … I don't know if you've seen “2,000 Mules,” we showed it at our headquarters. There are so many discrepancies and so many questions that have just been glossed over. I carry around with me a copy of my dad's Constitution that he gave me before he died. It's underlined like a King James Bible. And in it, it talks about how elections are to be handled. Four states - four states in our nation went around the Constitution to establish their own rules for voting in 2020, based on what I believe is a man-made virus and this emergency that came about and they were able to really, I think, in a lot of ways to overturn the will of the people.

Geisler: Are you not satisfied with the evidence that’s been put out disputing those claims?

Alford: I think if a 10th of it is true in “2,000 Mules” that we are in trouble as a nation. There was so much doubt cast and so many answers that still need to be questioned … And we will take back the House. Make it clear. This November, we're taking back the House and I think we're going to take back the Senate and when we do those investigations are going to begin. We're going to investigate the 2020 election. Of course, Missouri has already changed its voting laws, which is great. I think we need to get back to paper ballots. So I'm happy that we have the voter ID law, where you have to have a photo voter ID to be able to vote. So we only make sure that people who are qualified to vote who, should legally be voting in the state of Missouri, are casting their ballots. I want everyone to vote. Even if you're not voting me, I want everyone to vote and have their say, but we've got to do it legally.