A business executive and state rep, both Republicans, vie for a southwest Missouri Senate seat

Residents in Greene, Webster, Dade and Barton counties will have a new state senator in January. It will be a Republican — the only question is which one.

Curtis Trent, a lawmaker representing western Springfield in the Missouri House, and Brian Gelner, a beverage distribution company executive and owner, are running to represent Senate District 20, which spans the four southwest counties. The winner of the Aug. 2 primary will be the next senator for the district, since no Democrats or third-party candidates are running.

The two have much in common: both born in the Show-Me State, both men of faith, both conservatives running under the GOP banner.

But Trent and Gelner have laid out much different reasons why they believe their path and priorities are better suited to head to Jefferson City. The victor will succeed Sen. Eric Burlison, a Battlefield Republican who vacated the seat to run for Congress. Whoever wins will enter a state Senate currently defined by a deeply divided Republican supermajority.

Gelner, who was born in Cape Girardeau before moving to Springfield at two months old, has never held elected office. He's an owner and executive at Heart of America, which distributes beer and soda throughout southwest Missouri, and has at times come to the Capitol to lobby lawmakers on behalf of the beer sellers' association. Now, he's trying to become a lawmaker himself — touting himself as a potential "citizen legislator" who can bring his business acumen to the building, while deriding "career politicians" he believes have poisoned the well.

"Government is so dysfunctional," Gelner said during an interview at his small wood-paneled office, inside the Crown Distributing soda warehouse in southwest Springfield. "D.C. is a complete disaster, Jeff City is getting worse and worse. This year was really bad. It scares the heck out of me what it's going to look like in 10 years if we don't start getting pragmatic, common sense, less tribalism thinking up there. It's just got to happen."

Trent, who grew up on a farm in Douglas County, is taking a different tack — wielding his experience in both D.C. and Jefferson City as evidence that he's well-positioned to take a seat in the upper chamber. He joined U.S. Rep. Billy Long's congressional campaign after graduating law school and passing the bar, and became a policy staffer on Capitol Hill. After returning to Springfield, he succeeded Burlison in the House, winning a four-way Republican primary in 2016.

He pledges that "if you like the kind of issues I worked on, the positions I've taken as a member of the House, you'll love me as a senator." His attempt to again follow Burlison, this time to the Senate, comes with what he also believes are high stakes.

"I have felt for a long time that our country has been going in the wrong direction," Trent said in an interview at Springfield Library Center. "Our prosperity is ebbing away. The social, cultural strife has continued to divide people and it's caused a lot of consternation in the public."

Where Trent and Gelner stand on abortion and gun control

Both Trent and Gelner oppose abortion and say they're largely satisfied with current state laws, which banned the procedure in all circumstances except for medical emergencies after Roe v. Wade was overturned — though uncertainty still remains among providers, attorneys and patients about what exactly that means.

Trent said he believes the state will have plenty of time before the next legislative session to determine "how the law actually operates in the real world," and said he would be open to "adjustments to be more protective of life."

"I don't think it should be weakened in any way," he said.

Some Republicans proposed measures last session that would have gone further — such as allowing lawsuits against those who aid and abet patients crossing state lines to get abortions. Gelner said he opposed legislation along those lines, drawing a parallel to liquor laws that aren't enforced across states.

"We're not going to go prosecute you because you did something in another state that wasn't legal in Missouri," he said. "I have a hard time thinking things like that."

GOP supermajorities in the legislature have also sought to be at the tip of the spear on loosening gun laws, which continue to be scrutinized in the midst of daily mass shootings throughout the United States. Both candidates said they were strong supporters of the Second Amendment.

For subscribers: Gun laws in Missouri are among the loosest in the country. That's unlikely to change soon.

Gelner said he was "open to any and all discussions about safety, mental health, anything that's out there," emphasizing the need to increase resources for mental health programs and services. But he's opposed to legislation that could allow judges to seize weapons from people who are considered a threat to themselves or others.

"I haven't seen a red flag law that looks like it works to me," he said.

Trent chaired the House committee that passed an early version of a 2021 state law, sponsored by the current senator Burlison, that nullifies federal gun statutes and is under litigation. He remains "very supportive" of the law, which has been strongly criticized by law enforcement across the state, as well as "anti-commandeering legislation" that he believes empowers states to push back against the federal government.

"I think the states have been derelict for a long time in their use of their authority to try to push back against federal government overreach," Trent said.

Gelner and Trent have both voiced support for 'parents' bill of rights'

Always a hot topic under the dome of the Capitol, the content and leadership of public school classrooms came under especially intense scrutiny this last session amid a wave of frustration and distrust toward public schools from conservatives.

Gelner and Trent voiced support for a "parents' bill of rights," which would re-affirm parents' ability to access school board officials and curriculum materials. A version that passed the House last year would have opened districts to lawsuits if they violated the measure.

Trent urged for increased transparency in public schools and increased parental control on curriculum and other aspects of teaching. Last session, he sponsored several education bills, including one that sought to protect private data about students and another requiring the state education department to create a "patriotic and civics training program" for teachers.

For subscribers: Why numerous Republican bills targeting 'critical race theory' failed last session

"Schools should not teach worldview, they shouldn't teach political views, things like that," he said. "They should be politically neutral. They should be teaching reading, writing, arithmetic, the basics. A common sense history of the country, science topics."

Gelner said "we have to have strong public schools" and argued that "it's not legislative business to step on top of school boards," opting to allow boards to make local decisions.

Both candidates said they would support restrictions on transgender student-athletes, which were pushed by many Republicans this past legislative session and passed the House.

Charter schools are currently limited by state law to strictly the St. Louis and Kansas City regions, but saw a breakthrough this past session when lawmakers passed a bill increasing state funding for them. Gelner said he would still have to do more research on the topic; Trent said that he didn't believe they would be viable to expand elsewhere, but that "competition is good" and if charter schools could find a foothold in southwest Missouri, "that would be within their right to do so."

Medicaid expansion and ballot initiatives

Lawmakers passed a state budget for the new fiscal year that includes full funding for Medicaid expansion, as approved by a majority of voters in 2020. The year prior, Republicans declined to include that money, which led to a court battle and a requirement that the state enroll more residents in the low-income health care program.

Last session, House Republicans passed a ballot measure that would have asked voters to allow the legislature to determine and possibly roll back funding for the program.

Gelner called the issue a "done deal."

"I don't know why it would be sent back to the voters," he said. "That doesn't make any sense to me."

Medicaid expansion in Missouri: House advances ballot measure to defund expansion, attach work requirements

Trent, who voted in favor of the ballot measure this past session, said he was concerned about the costs associated with the program increasing as it expanded, arguing that "the federal money is not guaranteed to be there ... and it's a one-way ratchet."

"If you're putting able-bodied, working-age men onto the system, how, if we have shortfalls in funding in the future, will you be able to pull that back?" Trent said.

Medicaid expansion is the latest example of voter-sponsored ballot measures, which have often targeted progressive policy measures that run counter to Republican priorities, including medical marijuana legalization and a minimum wage increase.

Both candidates voiced support for proposals to raise the threshold for approving a ballot measure, a move that has been popular among Republicans in Jefferson City for several years but has yet to cross the finish line.

Missouri state budget and spending

Lawmakers have just one constitutional obligation every session from January to May — to create a new state operating budget. Both candidates expressed interest in being involved in that process.

Trent, who served on the House budget committee for four years, said lawmakers "always have to be looking for savings," which can be translated into tax cuts.

"The things that government does are important ... but the government does not generate wealth," Trent said. "The citizenry, the public generates wealth, they are the productive engine. And we don't want the burden on that engine to be too great that it deteriorates, to hurt it."

Gelner said he wants "to bring as much of (the money) back to southwest Missouri to invest in our projects as possible." His long-term goal is to ensure economic growth, keeping residents in-state and thus preventing the loss of a congressional seat in a decade.

"We've got to enact policies that make sure that in theory, not only are we not going to lose a seat, but hopefully in 20 years we can gain another seat," he said.

Politics of the divided Missouri Senate

The two Republicans are seeking to join a Senate that several members this year described as having three parties — Democrats, Republicans aligned with the chamber's leadership and the Conservative Caucus.

The latter is a group of seven men who in recent years have sought to push for a set of hard-right priorities, often by any means possible — attaching controversial amendments about vaccination and trans athletes to other bills, blocking colleagues' proposals and filibustering for days on end about congressional redistricting. The tense, inter-party dynamic culminated in an impromptu press conference held by nearly the entire Senate criticizing the Conservative Caucus, which includes the outgoing Burlison.

For subscribers, from January: How Missouri's redistricting fight has drawn ideological lines among Republicans

Trent wouldn't say whether or not he planned to join the Conservative Caucus but said he wasn't ruling it out.

"I'm going to leave all those decisions until after the election," he said. "They're all speculative. We don't know if the caucus will exist or who will be a member of it, any of those kinds of details."

Though several current members of the group are leaving office, it will almost certainly continue to exist. As for its next members, the website of a PAC formed by a former state senator to support the group provides a list of candidates who have committed to "being part of the Senate Conservative Caucus if elected." Trent is among them.

Gelner, meanwhile, made his stance clear.

"There's a zero percent chance I join them, I tell everyone that," he said. "They're being obstructionists. I would say the Missouri Senate this year was an embarrassment."

The News-Leader asked both candidates if they could change one thing about government with the snap of their finger, what it would be.

Gelner said he would "like to see the community be able to reengage more with the political system."

"I've talked to so many people that just said 'I'm checked out on politics because it's such a disaster,'" he said. "But I think that's a big problem. We're not perfect by any means ... but again, the system has to work."

Trent said he would "sever all ties with the federal government on education."

"The amount of strings that come attached to the federal government, the kind of things that they push on teachers in terms of testing requirements and that kind of stuff, the cultural impact that it has for a relatively small amount of funding," Trent said. "I think the state would be much better off if we could go our own way on those issues."

Galen Bacharier covers Missouri politics & government for the News-Leader. Contact him at gbacharier@news-leader.com, (573) 219-7440 or on Twitter @galenbacharier.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Curtis Trent, Brian Gelner running in MO Senate District 20 election