Interview with Gregg Bush, candidate for Missouri’s 50th House District
Gregg Bush is a Democrat running for Missouri’s 50th House District. Many of his policy positions have been shaped by his experience as a nurse.
His focus is primarily on health care issues and Bush says experts in the field should make health care policy. Bush's campaign website claims he will be the only nurse in the Missouri House if he is elected. Bush says he's also a parent of children in Columbia Public Schools and will fight to support the district in the legislature. The 50th District includes much of southern Columbia and the area immediately outside it.
Mitchell Kaminski: Thank you for joining us again. Starting off, how has the campaign been going for you to this point? What different stuff have you been doing to get out there and talk to the voters?
Gregg Bush: The campaign has actually been going really great all through before the primary, through the primary, even through to today. It's been really going well. Love [going] out talking to voters. Continued to do that on a daily basis, sometimes in person, sometimes on the phone, just making sure that when I'm elected this November I can be the best representative for the 50th.
Kaminski: What have you been hearing from voters? Going out there what would you say the biggest issue they feel the 50th District is facing right now?
Bush: So I think it's similar to what a lot of the other districts are facing right now as well. No. 1 is health care. When I say I'm a nurse, they're really interested in health care and also how health care interacts with the economy. Frankly, these are the things that I'm hearing and they want somebody to be able to go down to Jeff City, listen to their concerns, and be a good representative for them.
Kaminski: I know last time we spoke, you were talking about how you wanted to have someone with a perspective from health care have a voice in the House. Have voters been receptive to that? Because I know Amendment 3 is a big issue on the ballot. I'm sure working in health care, you have plenty of experience there. What's been the overall reception?
Bush: It’s been really exciting to be like you said that voice for health care down in Jeff City. But more importantly, somebody with a science background, somebody who's actually able to take kind of scientific terms, and again, I'm on leave from health care, where I was the coordinator for patient education. So I had to put rather complex ideas into simple terms for people to understand. So having that ability, having that training and that skill, being a nurse, being a professional, you know, skilled rapport builder as well, with other representatives building rapport with them, the voters want somebody with the science background who can talk to people and listen to people and come up with real common sense solutions going into the future for all Missourians.
Kaminski: Has the campaign strategy or your approach changed at all now that you have a different opponent than you initially thought with your opponent [Joshua Blakemore] dropping out? And do you think it’s been a benefit that you had a primary election or is that maybe a disadvantage that you had to do that extra work before the general?
Bush: I'm not ashamed of any of the work that I've done at all since announcing my candidacy through today. It has been nonstop, again, meeting voters, irrespective of who my opponent is, whether it's somebody from my own party or somebody from another party or a different person from the other party. It kind of doesn't matter. You got to go out and meet voters. You've got to be on the phone. You have to be on doors listening to people. And I'm excited for not only that ballot initiative but also for healthy families on the ballot this November as well. The strategy doesn't change. You got to go meet voters.
Kaminski: There's a lot of important amendments on the ballot this time around with Amendment 3 and Amendment 2. Starting with Amendment 3, has there been a message to voters around that and whether you're in support of that?
Bush: The thing that I changed on my campaign literature was a big sticker that says "Yes on 3." That is something that I've been endorsed by two organizations around abortion, around reproductive rights and abortion access. That has not changed since the beginning of the primary. That has not changed from my values. That's not going to change by election and going on into the future.
My hope is that Amendment 3 passes. But the reality is that with the majority that's down there right now and maybe the majority that will continue with this next legislative session, there's still going to be attacks on reproductive freedom. There's still going to be attacks on IVF, there's still going to be attacks on women's rights. And we need somebody with a science background who's actually lived this and lived along with people to be able to go down there, tell the stories, give a microphone and an amplifier to other people to tell their stories and make sure that we deliver for the women and for families here in Missouri.
Kaminski: With Amendment 2 I’m curious on your thoughts on gambling coming into the state and then just this specific amendment. Because I know there are some people who are supportive of sports betting but they say this [amendment] the way it's written is not up to their standards, there might be some loopholes. So two-pronged question: One, are you in favor of sports betting coming into the state and with this specific amendment would you be supportive of that?
Bush: Well, the reality is sports betting is already here in the state. The only question is whether or not the state of Missouri is going to be able to tax some of the betting that takes place. I have friends on both sides of this issue, and they are rightfully skeptical about the additional revenue that this amendment or that sports betting could bring to Missouri. They're rightly skeptical about whether this will actually be spent on education or not. So, there's people that I love that are going to vote yes. There's people that I love that are going to vote no. And that's the great thing about our democracy here is that we cannot let this duke it out at the ballot box and see what happens.
Kaminski: Getting back to your experience in the health care profession, I only touched on this briefly last time we spoke, but for the voters why do you feel like that is such a benefit with that background representing them or potentially representing them?
Bush: Well, nurses specifically, we are professional rapport builders. You come into our hospital, we take your clothes, we give you a gown that opens in the back. We stick needles in your arms every time of the day, and you've got to build rapport with people. And particularly when you're in the minority or super minority down there, you've got to be building rapport with people that might have a different letter after their name.
The reality is this as a nurse, I've never checked a political party before I've checked the pulse. You do the right thing for the right thing that's in front of you, for the right thing for Missouri, for the right thing for the patient. Those are the kinds of skills that a nurse brings that, not everybody else has.
So I think that's really important. And then again, having that science background, being able to take complex subjects, put them down into simple terms that everybody can understand, those are things that are really going to benefit me and hopefully benefit the 50th should I have the good fortune of serving.
Kaminski: Have there been any other issues that you’ve heard from voters that have maybe surprised you that weren't initially on your platform but you feel "Hey this is important, a lot of people have expressed this to me" that you’ve heard?
Bush: So this isn't really a surprise, it's something that I've been feeling and didn't know that other people were feeling the same way and would be as vocal about it. And that is the coarseness in our political discourse about how somebody that has a different letter after their name is somehow an enemy of yours. I know that I was experiencing that, but I didn't know that other people were having the same experiences than me. So they really, really want to turn down the temperature of political rhetoric, make sure that we get somebody honest, make sure that we get somebody that knows the issues. Those were the thing that was really a surprise to me, talking to voters on their doorsteps.
Kaminski: Do you think there is a path to tone down that rhetoric?Because I know that's something we've heard on the national level as well, and it really hasn't been implemented. Despite all that talk of toning down rhetoric. Specifically starting with you guys at the local level, do you think that can be achieved or a respectful level of discourse between the two parties to find some sort of common ground?
Bush: I mean, I just met my new opponent yesterday, [Oct. 1] so I guess it remains to be seen kind of, you know, what this is. But I mean, we saw on the debate, frankly, between the two vice presidential candidates just the amount of like dishonesty that was exhibited of being on every side of an issue.
It's one thing to misspeak and it's another thing to be dishonest and to deceive, right? And the reality is, not only is it possible on a local level, it absolutely needs to be. It is germane. It is important at the local level. You know, as a nurse, I never saw somebody as a collection of signs and symptoms or pathologies. That's a human being on the other side of that interaction. That's a skill that I bring that I'm going to continue to bring, that make sure that again, the person that I'm running against is my neighbor, not right next door, but we are just a neighborhood or two away. Like this is a person who's my neighbor. And so we're going to absolutely be completely respectful. Again it remains to be seen.
Kaminski: Initiative petitions have been a big topic of discussion because it is what got Amendment 3 on the ballot as well as helping legalize marijuana, expanding Medicaid. I know there have been some lawmakers who have been vocal about wanting to increase the threshold for initiative petitions. What are your thoughts on that? Would you like to see any sort of increases? I’m curious on your thoughts in general?
Bush: I think it needs to remain how it is, at least. I think if there was going to be a removal of any sort of stipulations from the initiative petition reform, I think it should be a simple majority. And then ultimately the lawmakers down in Jeff City, they need to actually follow the will of the voters. I mean, we voted for Medicaid expansion. Lawmakers ignored that. We voted for Clean Missouri in terms of gerrymandering. Lawmakers, the majority political extremists that are down there, ignored that. So the kind of IP reform that was suggested in the last session, which would raise the threshold for getting an initiative petition on the ballot, was actually a nonstarter for me. I’m so happy my party filibustered and were ultimately able to be successful.
Kaminski: Finally is there anything you would like to add that we may not have touched on that you feel would be important for voters to know?
Bush: Yeah, you know, there's a lot of challenges that are facing not only the 50th but Missouri in general. I'll talk to you a little bit about the 50th challenges that we have. This is an affluent, educated, dynamic district. We have students. We have retirees. There's people who've moved here to Columbia simply for our world-class health care through the University of Missouri, through the VA and through Boone as well.
When we have clinics closing outside of Columbia, when we have hospitals closing in other counties, when we have physicians fleeing the state because of Republican policies that have put these regulations, restrictions in place surrounding health care, it puts a strain on our world-class health care system. These are significant things that I hear about not only because I'm a nurse, but these are things that people are talking about around their dining room tables. I would like for us to be able to support other communities to make sure that our community still has access to our world health care system.
Kaminski: Do you mind expanding on that a little bit, just as far as the strain you're talking about? Any specific examples of that and how it could potentially impact a patient that they might not know about?
Bush: So there are counties in the state that don't have an OB-GYN. There's women that are needing to drive hours in order to find an OB to help with their pregnancy. If they have complications through their pregnancy, we have physicians that need to call a lawyer to find out what it is that they can do because they're not able to treat the patient in front of them. We had hospitals that were bought by out-of-state concerns and realized, oh, you know, if Missouri is not going to be investing in our health care system and then they close up shop and nobody is around to pick up the slack. But the reality is that there's still a demand that is required in our area for health care. So those are the kinds of things that, again, that I'm hearing an awful lot about and things that are ultimately reversible.
