Missouri governor candidate interview: Mike Hamra

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

ABC 17 News is interviewing candidates for Missouri governor ahead of the August primary.

Mike Hamra is running for the Democratic nomination. Hamra has been a part of the restaurant franchising company Hamra Enterprises since 2001.

LINK: Interview with Democratic candidate Crystal Quade

Lucas Geisler: What's your work and maybe your political background as well?

Hamra: So I graduated from the University of Missouri School of Law, born and raised in Springfield, Missouri, live here with my wife and four children. And I went to spend time in Washington, D.C., as an attorney, but also worked in the Clinton administration and also worked for the Federal Communications Commission as a career employee as well before joining our family-owned business back in Springfield, Missouri, in 2001.

Geisler: You've been in that with that company since 2001?

Hamra: Yep. For the last 22 years, I've been growing my family-owned business from 26 locations to 200. Today we employ over 7,400 people. Two thousand of those people are here in the state of Missouri.

Geisler: What made you want to run for governor?

Hamra: So I have a long history of growing our organization as I shared from 26 locations to almost 200 today, by bringing people together, creating a common vision, you know, focusing on bringing people together to really move things forward, even solving problems. And I'm running for governor because I love our state. You know, it's a great place to live, work and raise a family. But for too long, our politicians have been playing political games. And while other states surrounding us surged ahead, Missouri continues to fall farther and farther behind.

And like many Missourians, I'm frustrated with the stagnant state that we're in right now and we're not making progress. We have a lot of working families that are still struggling to make ends meet. There's bigger issues in our state, including our economy. And I saw that there was a real opportunity to really make a difference here and to run for political office, to really work with people, bringing them together to try to move the state forward.

Geisler: When it comes to the economy and the state of business in Missouri, what's your plan when it comes to taxes in the state and also when it comes to government spending, as the governor has a big role in deciding that?

Hamra: Sure. So I released a 42-page plan, a large component of that plan is how we're going to grow our economy. We have three out of four businesses in the state of Missouri, for example are businesses that employ about 10 or fewer people. And part of my plan includes supporting ... and sustaining those businesses, helping them grow, helping them to create jobs.

It also includes making sure that people that want higher-skilled jobs, workforce training can have those opportunities. And you know third, it includes making sure that people that have innovative ideas or that want to start their own businesses can do that easily. So streamlining those opportunities, creating like a one-stop shop where someone that wants to start a business can go to and even have a guide to walk them through how to start a business and get it started, it can be done and easily accomplished. Whereas today there's so many impediments and barriers in the way for people starting their own businesses and even growing and sustaining our businesses. I'll be focused on growing our economy and really going to work on that as governor. And it's something obviously I know a lot about. We've been a small business before and we certainly help grow our business by focusing on job opportunities for people in the state.

Geisler: I guess on that point what are some of the major impediments you see to people being able to start a business in the state that you'd like to either ease or get rid of?

Hamra: So, you know, for us, you know, if you try to go to open up a restaurant, for example, in the City of St. Louis right now, you have to go through about nine different governmental agencies. So streamlining that, so it's not an impediment. So that's a challenge for any business regardless of when they started or where they are today.

But we just have to make it easier for people to do business in our state. And that's one opportunity. I think the other opportunity is making sure that we're doing everything we can to unify or get like building codes, for example, we're consistent across the state, making it easier for people to go out and grow their businesses. I think there's like, a number of different ways that we can help people.

And for small businesses, I think there's opportunities to help them move along. Like in my plan, I've talked about, you know, even waiving some of the fees that might be encumbering a small business at the beginning where it's really tough to get started and you really need to generate revenue to help them out and the state can do a lot to help them get started and get their legs underneath them and gain momentum so they can grow beyond that first year.

Geisler: You have any position on the current tax structure in the state?

Hamra: Well, look, I think there'll be lots of things to look at as governor. The thing that I'm going to stay focused on is growing our economy. We're growing at half the rate as the rest of the country right now. There is a lot of low-hanging fruit around how we can grow this economy. And as far as helping people start new businesses, we could be the small business capital of the Midwest just by creating incentives and creating opportunities and removing barriers for people to start businesses. We have so many great ideas and innovators in the state of Missouri and really supporting them to go out and start those businesses and in helping them sustain it, it's going to be a key cornerstone for me as governor.

Geisler: The Republican primary has made the state's relationship with Chinese-owned businesses a major part of their battle. I don't know, do you have any position on what you think the appropriate relationship is between the state of Missouri and Chinese-owned companies?

Hamra: Well, look, I think, you know, just opening up our state to allowing for entities to come in and own farmland is not the right approach. You know, we want people in the state of Missouri that care about their communities because we know that when there are people that grow businesses who are born and raised here, raise a family, they take care of their communities, they invest back in their communities. And that's really a proven statistic. We know even businesses like ourselves contribute back more to the community that we do business in than businesses that are either out of state or even out of, you know, foreign entities. So I'm going to make sure that we're doing everything we can to support people here in the state of Missouri to be able to buy farmland and buy businesses and grow businesses and even start new businesses. I'm going to focus on what's happening inside our borders to help people and help this community out across the state. That's where I'm going to be focused.

Geisler: I want to ask you about crime and safety in the State of Missouri. Just generally speaking, you think it's safe to live in Missouri?

Hamra: Well, I think as Missourians, you know, I have a family of four, and I think that we have to focus on making sure that people feel safe walking around in their communities, especially families, you know, that they can go out to a public event and they feel safe and secure when they're at those public events. I know that people don't feel that way right now, especially with some of the incidences that have happened over the past six months and even year. We've got to do better as a state and even inside our local communities to make sure that we're doing everything we can to protect people and protect families and create safety. As governor, I'm going to be focused on, you know, strengthening background checks on gun purchases as well as creating red flag laws. The majority of Missourians, even gun owners like myself, want stronger background checks and they want red flag laws to be put in place. I know that law enforcement wants red flag laws. It will help them in doing their job because right now they walk into situations where there's not the level of awareness that they need to have in order to deal with those situations. So it's going to be important to put these in place for the safety of the public, but also in support of our law enforcement agencies across the state.

Geisler: I suppose you mentioned a couple of things right there, but I am curious if there's any programs or things that you've seen in Missouri that maybe you've seen elsewhere that you would like to either expand further in the state, invest further in when it comes to alleviating crime?

Hamra: Well, I think a lot of that is going to be around supporting each other, you know, making sure that we're as a state, as as as a governor, collaborating with local officials and making sure that we're in those conversations because the local officials know what's best for their communities. And it's important that as governor that I work and understand what's happening in those local communities to make sure that I understand what we need to be doing as a state, but also how to support those local communities. That is usually the baseline of starting out with where things need to start and then moving on from there with any ideas about how to elevate that in the state.

Geisler: Let me ask you about education. What do you think is the current state of public education in Missouri?

Hamra: Well, part of my policy plan includes investing back in our public school system right now. You know, from preschool to 12th grade, it's about 800,000 kids that are in our school system here in the State of Missouri. That's out of like 6.1 million people in the state. We should be focusing our efforts on supporting our next generation of leaders and the next generation that is going to work with and raise a family here in the State of Missouri. So it starts with making sure that our teachers are being properly compensated and they're incentivized to want to apply for jobs in our school system and making sure we're supporting our existing staff in those public school systems.

But it also includes making sure that we're supporting the kids that are going to school there. You know, part of my plan includes extending the federal program that was in place during COVID that provided free breakfast and free lunches for all kids in the public school system. We did not extend that as a state, and I believe that we should put that in place for the states and support kids because it is proven that kids that go hungry during the day don't thrive. But when they're eating and when they're fed, they do thrive in school. And that's one thing that we can take on as a state for our public schools.

Geisler: How do you ensure that various proficiencies that students have to improve -- math, at reading, lots of different things that do get measured right now to see how students are doing -- how do you ensure that you keep those moving in the right direction? And is there any, whether it's oversight or different programs that you'd like to implement or invest into to make sure they head in the right direction?

Hamra: Yeah, I think as state, I'd like to invest in out-of-school educational programs. I think there's opportunities to do that to help elevate the education that kids in our public school system are getting. We can do so much more to help our kids that are in our public school system today than how we're approaching it right now. That's one way to do it. And then, as I said before, we've got to lean in and support our teachers. We've got to support our public school administrators and the staff that are in those school systems. That's what I'm going to be focused on as governor to make sure I understand what they say is needed and then lean in there to focus on that.

Geisler: Immigration has become a pretty big issue, especially politically and has been the focus again on the Republican side of the campaign ... But I am curious about your position as well. What role do you see between the executive office of Missouri and immigration, illegal immigration, particularly at the southern border?

Hamra: So immigration is a federal issue. You know, right now there's a bipartisan bill sitting in the U.S. Congress waiting to be passed. But instead of our lawmakers moving that forward because it's an election year, they're using it as a political football and they're playing games much like what we see in Jefferson City all the time. So I'm a big advocate for putting pressure on our federal lawmakers to get that piece of legislation passed. Again, it's a bipartisan bill that would secure our borders, ensure that people come into this country legally. My position on the actions that our governor has taken to send the men and women of our National Guard down to the southern border is money that's going out of this state. We're spending billions of dollars on protecting a border. That is not our responsibility. It is the responsibility of the federal government. Instead of using that money to put back into our state to provide support, whether that's in public education, whether that's in health care, whether that's helping working families make ends meet. You know, we have so many bigger needs right here in the State of Missouri, like supporting working families and instead sending that money to do a job of the federal government.

Geisler: You hear many Missouri officeholders right now say the line, every state becomes a border state because of, you know, talking about the situation at the southern border. In Missouri, I heard a lot of people say the effect of this immigration is coming here, whether it's like through specifically drugs is what cited and other various crimes. There's a House committee or at least a General Assembly committee investigating or looking further into that. Do you believe there is any effect that this state feels because of the immigration situation and the current policies at the southern border?

Hamra: Well, here's what I'm going to tell you. We have a massive fentanyl problem in the state already without even talking about the southern border. That's where we're going to need to focus our attention is dealing with the existing problem that's been here for years before we even get to that other issue of the southern border impacting our state. And we've got to focus on that. As part of my 42-page policy plan that I rolled out on how to deal with that, to ensuring that we're putting in, you know, support centers that support people that are addicted to drugs, helping nonviolent offenders. We've got so much work that we already can take on right now. I don't want to you know, I want to make sure that that's where we're putting our focus, because there's already so many Missourians that are afflicted by this that it's important that we stay focused on that and support the Missourians here and say, you know, right here in our state.

Geisler: I'd like to ask you about the state of affairs with health care in the State of Missouri. Do you have a, whether it's a plan or an idea or a philosophy as far as dealing with rural health care and I think specifically of many rural hospitals that have had to close in the last several years? Do you have any plans or philosophy on that?

Hamra: Well, it really starts with the extreme abortion ban. You know, we were fortunate for us, advocates across the state have done an awesome job in making sure we'll have a ballot initiative in November that will allow voters to restore women's right to abortion. Doing that will open up the opportunity for health care professionals to start coming back into the state and looking for job opportunities. We've got to attract healthier professionals. Right now, we have seen the decline of health care professionals wanting to work in this state because of the extreme abortion ban. Even OB-GYNs, where we are one of the lowest in attracting OBGYNs into the state because of that extreme abortion ban that's putting women's lives at risk right now. So we've got to start there. And then secondly, you're right, we have to focus in on health care throughout the state, including the rural parts of our state. I know for a fact that there are health care organizations that have closed down that's impacting people's lives in those areas. And we've got to ensure that people in rural parts of our state have quality access to health care and just have access in general to health care and ensuring that we're attracting more health care professionals, as I said, into the state, not just in our major urban poor, but also throughout the rural parts of our state as well.

Geisler: Let me ask you about the state of affairs when it comes to abortion in the state. This is us talking right now. We'll see if there will be a November ballot issue regarding abortion and reproductive health care. I'd like to know your thoughts on that specific ballot measure and also, what's your current take on the abortion laws in this state.

Hamra: Yeah, it's got to we're going to have that ballot initiative on the ballot. I'm confident that we'll have it there in November for voters to restore women's right to abortion and also confident that it will pass. We'll win that and that will be good for women in the state to have that right that no, nobody wants politicians sitting in their doctor's office talking about reproductive health care or what their decision is going to be around having children. That's just not something people want, or families want or women want. And secondly, we will need to have a Democratic governor who will ensure that we protect those rights going forward. It’s not just good for, you know, women in the state and families who are looking to have families, but it's also good for our economy. You know, I've talked to parents and grandparents almost every day who tell me the same thing, which is they are concerned that their children are not going to move back to the state, that they're interested in going somewhere else where they will not have a politician in their medical office talking to them about growing a family. They want to live in states like that, not states like Missouri. That's why it's so important that we restore women's rights and get rid of this extreme abortion ban because it is impacting our economy as well.

Geisler: Mr. Hamra, that's all the questions that I have. So I really appreciate you taking the time to do this. Is there anything that you'd like to add that I didn't ask you about?

Hamra: Yeah, I don't think so. I think I'm just excited about this opportunity because I think it's what we need right now in the State of Missouri is real leadership. We need somebody who's experience bringing people together and establishing a common vision, working to get alignment and then moving things for me, even where there's disagreements, I've done that for the last 22 years. That's how I've grown our family-owned business, and I would bring that exact same approach to being governor in the State of Missouri with real progress for our future that I know that everyone can be excited about.