Missouri 44th District House candidate interview: Bryce Beal

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

ABC 17 News is interviewing candidates in the August primary ahead of the election. Below is an interview with Bryce Beal, one of two Republicans seeking election to the 44th House District seat being vacated by Cheri Toalson Reisch (R-Hallsville).

The district encompasses most of southern and eastern Boone County outside Columbia.

Beal's opponent in the Republican primary is John Martin.

Mitchell Kaminski: I appreciate you stopping by and joining us I know you're busy on the campaign trail. I guess first question would be, why do you want to run for this 44th District seat?

Bryce Beal: Yeah. So obviously, I live in the 44th so it's the local seat and what really got me involved was mostly, I've seen kind of the decay of the American dream in the United States with the economy being so poor at the moment. As a new father with a 12-week-old daughter at home, I want to make sure that the next generation of young people have the same opportunities that I had and that you had growing up to really, take themselves from wherever they are to where they want to be, by working hard and doing well for themselves. And I think to do that, we need to get the government off of people's backs. And we need people in office who can really, effectuate good policy that will get us back on track. And my experience as an attorney defending Missouri laws and practicing law in the state, I think gives me a unique perspective where I can draft effective legislation to really push those policy goals and help our economy.

Kaminski: Is there one issue that stands out to you specifically in the 44th that you would like to see addressed or like one of the bigger issues, I guess that stands out to you?

Beal: Yeah. So at the doors [door knocking], the economy and illegal immigration have been the two biggest issues. On the illegal immigration front, I think people kind of see Missouri as in the middle of the country and don't see it as impacting us in this area. But right now in Missouri, the leading cause of death for individuals 18 to 45 is drug overdose. And 70% of those overdoses are due to opiates. Fentanyl is being trafficked through the southern border to Missouri and leading to a lot of these deaths. You know, street drugs are being laced with fentanyl, causing overdoses for people who didn't even know that they had, an opiate in the drugs they were using, which I don't condone drug use but, in this situation, fentanyl is coming across the southern border and killing people right here in Boone County.

So I think in the 44th, one of my big priorities is to strengthen up our prosecution in Boone County. Whether that looks like giving oversight to the attorney general's office to come in and prosecute when the local prosecutor doesn't have the resources or just lending a hand when they're overburdened by the number of crimes. You know, with having Highway 70 running through Columbia, we get a lot of traffic and a lot of folks coming through the area, very high crime. So we need to make sure that we have effective prosecutors that can deal with the opiate crisis that we have going on right now. 

So I've heard that a ton at the doors. And like I mentioned, the economy. Just alieving some of that burden of taxes on people in the 44th. Those are two big things, that I think, they're not confined to the 44th, but voters are very passionate about. The other thing I would say is Mizzou is going to be building the next generation nuclear reactor down east of 63 south of town and so that's pretty close to the 44th District. We have Columbia Airport in the 44th. So I think it's gonna be critical to work with the university to see their needs and make sure that we can bring this nuclear reactor in a safe manner. That's going to drive the economy. It's going to bring in new jobs. New manufacturers. So that's another one of my priorities is working with the university to make sure we keep that alive.

Kaminski: Getting into specific issues, you mentioned the University of Missouri. Overall, what would you say the state of Missouri education is? And is there anything you would specifically like to see done to maybe improve our education? How do you think the state's doing in that regard?

Beal: Well, so that's twofold, right? You have kindergarten through 12th grade and then you have higher education, college, graduate school, whatever it may be. So I think we do a really great job in higher education right now. We've got the University of Missouri here. We've got the University of Missouri, Kansas City in Kansas City. We've got Washington University, Saint Louis University, UMSL in Saint Louis, SEMO down in Cape Girardeau. So I think these are all great higher education facilities. So we really have a very educated community in mid-Missouri, especially Columbia is one of the most educated towns in the country. I think what we need to focus on is that K-12 education, because the most recent numbers from Columbia Public Schools are abysmal, to say the least. We see over at Battle High School about 9% of students can read and do math proficiently to go on to college. That's less than 1-in-10 students. We have to figure out a way to really help those students so that they're in a position that they can go out into the workforce, whether it be to go to college and then into the workforce or whether it's to go directly into the workforce, we have to make sure we're educating kids so that they can get higher paying jobs so that they can do well for themselves.

So my approach to that is more school choice. I think the charter school expansion, bringing a charter school into Boone County is great. I look forward to working with the county to make that happen during my tenure as a state representative. And I want to make sure that we expand those opportunities not just to Columbia and Boone County, but to the state, throughout the state, so that we can really see a more competitive market in education. Because, I'm a free market capitalist guy and I think that the solution is always more choice, not less of it. So we need to break up the monopolies and make sure that students can find an education that fits them regardless of their zip code and regardless of how much money their parents have. Every student deserves a great education.

Kaminski: Now, I know a lot of people in Columbia Public Schools that we've talked to specifically were against charter schools coming in that they thought that would be bad for the school district. What would be your response to them, why do you think that's such a positive?

Beal: Yeah, I think it's a positive because it creates competition. And so the public schools will now have to raise their standards. They'll have to perform better or risk losing students to this charter school. And you know, a rising tide raises all boats, as they say. And so when you have a school that they now have to compete with, they can't just sit back and say, ‘This is how we do things we're going to sit here and continue to fail students.’ Now they have to actually actively work to do better and compete with another school instead of just getting all of the students by virtue of being in the district.

Kaminski: I know crime has been a hot-button issue as of late. Where is your stance on how to best address and fund and public safety concerns that people may have?

Beal: Yeah so, I'm a former prosecutor. I've prosecuted folks here in Boone County and throughout the state and speaking with law enforcement, I think the breakdown that we have in a lot of cases is on the prosecutorial side. We have prosecutors who are overworked, not paid enough, and just rapid turnover in local prosecutors' offices. So I think the key to fixing our crime issue is going to be bringing in qualified prosecutors, paying them a livable wage to where they'll stick around and help us prosecute cases instead of using the prosecutor's office as a stepping stone on to the next place in their career.

So I think that's the focus that I've heard from folks in law enforcement and also from my own experience is that we need better prosecution, we need more prosecutors, and we need them there for a longer time so that they get the hang of things and can effectively prosecute and keep the criminals off our streets once the cops do the hard work of catching them.

Kaminski: Speaking of the streets, the price of housing is going up across the country and the amount of housing available seems to be going down. Homelessness is another big issue in Boone County. Do you have any plans on how you would address that homelessness issue or just even affordable housing? I know that's another hot-button word too that people like to use. 

Bryce Beal: Yeah, it certainly is. I think it's difficult to really incentivize the housing market from the statehouse because it's more of a national trend. So I think the way that we help folks is by, like I said, getting the government off of people's backs, cutting regulations so that it's not as expensive for developers to come in and build new projects. For instance, I live down in Ashland and there's been some pushback and a little bit of an issue. They want to build an apartment complex in town. You know, a lot of folks are on board, some aren't. So just, cutting that red tape so that we can move forward with projects like that that would create more options in the housing market so that we're not forced into having just really high-end, expensive single-family dwellings, but giving people more options on what they can do and where they can live so that folks with lower incomes can have somewhere to go instead of turning to the streets.

Kaminski: In 2022 the courts overturned Roe v Wade. What would you like to see in Missouri stand on that issue? 

Beal: Absolutely. So I'm 100% pro-life, and I think that's twofold. That means, I am pro-life when the baby is in utero, when it's gestating. But I'm also pro-life for the life of the child. Right now in Missouri, we see an issue where kids who are in bad situations when they're removed from those situations, they don't have anywhere to go. They're stuck. I've talked with Department of Homeland Security officers who tell me that they'll go in and bust a ring of drug dealers or something like that and then they find kids, they take them to the police station, they end up sitting in the police station sometimes for up to 36 hours. That's unacceptable. Over in Kansas, they have a program where they have a home. It's like a hotel, kind of. They take the kids there for 72 hours and then they find them a place to go so that they're not just sitting in a police station. This is one of the hardest nights of their lives and we're sticking them in a police station where it's, pretty scary for them.

So I think moving in a direction where we have better services for young children is also very important. But at the end of the day, too, with this issue, I'm focusing right now on trying to defeat the ballot measure that's going to be on the ballot in November, because the the pro-abortion groups have really pushed this and I think it's extreme. This ballot measure would allow for abortions up until the time of birth, as long as a doctor certifies that it's for the mental or physical health of a mother. And there have been doctors who said they will certify that any pregnancy is a risk to the health of the mother. And so in that case, it's carte blanche abortion up until the time of birth. 

I think that certainly takes it too far. We have to get that under control. We have to stop that ballot measure first. And it also removes medical malpractice liability from people who provide abortions. So it's not only harming these children, but it's harming the mothers because now they have no recourse when they're taken advantage of or mistreated in an abortion facility.

Kaminski: Just to play Devil's advocate to that point, you said your big thing is you want the government to be off the backs of people. So I guess if the pro-choice argument were to be  ‘Well, you're kind of dictating what to do with my body.' What would your response be to that? It's like the government kind of stepping in and saying, 'Hey, you have no choice.'

Beal: Yeah, I would say that the child is a child. You know, at some point everyone can agree that at some point the child is a child. I personally believe that it's always a child. So, you know, I think that's where a lot of the disconnect in this argument happens is at some at some point, regardless of where you stand on it, that is a baby that is protected by law.

You know, if someone murders a woman who is pregnant, they can be charged with a double murder. So what's the difference here between, you know, a child in one case, but not in another? I think it's a difficult subject for sure. But I think that's where the disconnect happens with a lot of folks in this argument at what point is it a life? And I think it's a life throughout.

Kaminski: You did bring up the immigration issue, so I got your stance on that. I guess a follow-up to that would be, as a prosecutor, obviously, you have some experience working with this. Have you seen a direct correlation between illegal immigrants coming across and these fentanyl deaths? Because I know that's a thing a lot of people don't realize is even though these the central states might be affected, it's not necessarily just the border states, but in your experience as a prosecutor, would you say there is a direct link between illegal immigration and fentanyl deaths in Missouri? 

Bryce Beal: I would say there certainly is. You know, I have not seen a case in particular where I was able to directly link the fentanyl to someone who had brought it across the border and go that far back, because that's just not what you do as a prosecutor. You look at what's going on now. But I think if you look at simply the statistics, right, the amount of people crossing our border, the amount of drugs crossing our border, and then the statistics on that. Drug overdose is the number one leading cause of death for Missourians 18-45 and then say that 70% of those are opiate-related. It's nearly impossible to say that that's not in some way connected to the opiates that are pouring across our border.

Kaminski: What would you say if you were elected, your biggest spending priorities would be or maybe your focus is on cuts? Budget-wise what would you say your focus would be on if you were elected? 

Beal: Yeah. So I think it's kind of twofold, right? So where would I want to spend money and where do I want to cut money? I think what we see is a lot of administrative bloat in different agencies, right? They're building out more and more positions at the top of government agencies, increasing the size of the bureaucracy. And so I think that is somewhere where we can look at that and say, hold on, do you really need all of this administrative staff that really their job is just to administer the other people who are doing the work that the agency is created for.

So I think we look there first for budget cuts and then as far as spending, I think infrastructure is a huge issue in Boone County. I know it's slightly outside of Boone County, but down near Cole County, the other day, a truck was driving across the bridge. The bridge collapses. You know, our infrastructure needs investment. We've got good investment coming on I-70. But I think that's something critical is going to be improving our rural roads, our rural bridges so that farmers aren't scared every time they go to cross a rural bridge to get to their field. The other thing, like I mentioned with the University of Missouri, is going to be ensuring that we continue support for the University of Missouri to allow them to build the new generation nuclear reactor and continue the great work that they do for mid-Missouri in educating our population.

And then finally, once again, when it comes to school choice, it does take some money sometimes to make sure that new schools are available to expand the programs so that kids can go to the schools that serve them best. So I think that money in that direction and then as well, like prosecutorial work, I think we have to make sure that our prosecutions are funded so that we're not losing all of our talent to private law firms. So I would encourage the state to take a look and consider spending more money prosecuting folks. So that will I think in the long run, it will actually save us money because we're not going to be paying over and over again to prosecute the same people and giving them sweetheart plea deals and using police resources to take them off the streets. But instead, we're going to get the job done the first time.

Kaminski: I saw on your platform that Second Amendment rights are a big part of your platform. I know with what happened with former President Trump this weekend that topic is probably going to come up again. Missouri already has some of the loosest gun regulations in the country. Do you feel like there could be some sort of balance as far as any sort of restrictions there? Where should Missouri be on that Second Amendment? What does protecting that look like to you?

Beal: Yeah. So I'm very, very pro-Second Amendment. I'm a gun owner myself. And I think Missouri has a pretty decent balance right now. I think, there are some areas that we can improve on, though, for instance, right now in Missouri, if you're a state employee driving a state car or staying in a state facility anywhere throughout the state, you cannot have a firearm on you during your trip anywhere. So in certain areas of St. Louis, for instance, we send state employees into those areas. Very high crime, and they have no means of self-defense. So I would like to work with the Office of Administration to repeal that rule and allow our state employees to have firearms to defend themselves when they go into these dangerous areas and situations. I think the Second Amendment is pretty clear, it says that the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. I've worked on that extensively as a constitutional law attorney with the attorney general's office, and I think Missourians deserve their freedoms.

Kaminski: Finally, I'll open the floor to you. Is there anything that you feel will be important for people to know or something that's important to you that we might not have touched on?

Beal: You know, I think the biggest thing is my background. You know, I grew up in a single-wide trailer with seven folks living in there at one point and worked hard. I worked manual labor throughout high school, throughout college, paid my own way through law school, became the first in my family to graduate straight out of high school, and then went on to law school. And I've just worked hard and tirelessly my entire career. And that's the kind of work ethic that I want to bring to the state House, that I want to, you know, push forward the conservative agenda and help bring young people in and realize that the conservative movement, the Republican Party, is for all generations, and that together we can make Missouri a better place to live and we can keep this country the greatest country on earth.