Whose on the ballot for the Republican 5th US Congressional District Primary Race?

By Ben McCarthy

Six Republican challengers for the 5th District will be on the August 4th ballot. Emanuel Cleaver seeks re-election on the Democrat side, and runs again unopposed for his 12th consecutive term.

Cleaver, who will be 82 in October, expects to go against a Republican in the November general election who was born in the 1980’s. Five of the six candidates are millennials, who are heavily underrepresented in the U.S. Congress. Those Americans, ranging from people now in their early 30’s to mid 40’s, hold less than 10% of  Congressional seats, while making up nearly 30% of the voting-age population.

The Telegraph reached out to all six candidates with a list of the same 12 questions to gauge their policy positions. Below are selected excerpts from those responses (listed as they appear on the ballot): 

(NOTE: Much of the following was not present in this week’s print edition of the Telegraph, as candidates Rick Brattin and Bert Knox were not available to speak before the paper’s Wednesday print deadline. Additionally some discussions were edited for space in the print edition.)

Brad Patty

Fayette, 45  

After retiring from the Army 12 months ago where he served 25 years as a combat mechanic, Brad Patty says he can reach across the aisle and serve all constituents, from rural to urban interests across the district. He says his platform is based on: affordability, accountability, and a principled pro-life position. 

“I’m a foster kid, and me and my kids wouldn’t be here without that,” Patty said. “The final destination for me is that abortion isn’t even thought of anymore, just as we don’t think of slavery anymore – so that it’s that far removed from our culture.” 

Patty says the country is being invaded along the southern border. He also points out that his wife is an immigrant, and he will call to expand legal immigration. He says he will help finish funding the border wall, and end all “catch-and-release” policies.

“We have an immigration problem, and we need more ICE facilities, but they have to be humane,” Patty said. “If the people  don’t want it and no one wants to build it, that should tell Washington that ‘we the people’ don’t want it.” 

Patty is ready to work toward ending income taxes for all but the top 1% of earners, for small business growth and to pave the way for more workers to advance toward home ownership. He calls for more congressional oversight of the federal reserve, but otherwise wants the government further away from economic matters (on his campaign website, he also says he will fight to “bring back strong American manufacturing”). 

“We have to let people keep as much of their money as possible, that will help [first-time] home buyers,” Patty said. “The government isn’t generating any money, it’s only consuming.” 

Brett Hueffmeier

Kansas City, 46  

A onetime staffer for U.S. Senators Kit Bond and John Ashcroft, Brett Hueffmeier grew up in  Linneus before moving to Lee’s Summit, and then earning his law degree in St. Louis. He went abroad to China where he served as a professor of business ethics and law and Dean of educational programs. He calls China a geopolitical threat to the U.S., and a global threat to freedom around the world. 

“When I lived in China, you knew that you can’t leave your house without being surveilled,” Hueffmeier said. “I’m concerned we’re headed in that same direction where you have no expectation of privacy, and AI tools are used to track you.”

Hueffmeier points to difficult decisions on the horizon concerning the growing debt, and says entitlement reform, specifically social security, needs to be considered. He also acknowledges that such measures will only make the housing market more difficult for young people to enter. 

“One option to keep social security solvent is increasing withholdings from younger workers, but that only to make it more difficult for young people to afford housing,” Hueffmeier said. “Housing is what the American Dream is all about and what Baby Boomers had: staying in one job their entire life and one house, we just don’t have that anymore.” 

Unlike his opponents, Hueffmeier sees a federal role in the lives of K-12 students. He says local schools need support from Washington, and saw a lot of positive signs in education before Covid policies took hold, leading to deep declines in math and reading scores.

“It’s not popular to say, but I think we should maintain levels of support for education [at the federal level],” Hueffmeier said. “There’s an important role to play in the funding of special education and providing assistance for Universities, something we do better than anywhere else in the world.”

Hueffmeier says he stands by the President’s strikes against Iran, saying the country has been an evolving threat since 9/11, funded a great deal of terrorism, and: “had to be dealt with.” He says the war has degraded Iran’s military capacity, but says the planning and messaging of the war was inadequate.

“President Bush went around the country and built support [for Iraq],” Hueffmeier said. “Iran was an imminent threat and was going to continue to taunt us.” 

Taylor Burks

Jefferson City, 40  

A Navy veteran, and father of three young boys, Taylor Burks calls himself a traditional Republican when it comes to economic and tax policy, and sees his tenure as Boone County’s first Republican County Clerk as one where he fought for “commonsense protections” for Missourians. He supports a robust foreign policy and stands behind the President’s actions overseas.

“I’m the only candidate in this district that has served over there,” Burks said. “Iran is a fundamentalist regime and the President was absolutely correct if he saw actionable intelligence.” 

He is also enormously concerned about the surveillance state he sees emerging at home, alluding to the sudden rise of Flock Safety cameras throughout the country. 

“We already see the constant surveillance of citizens in Asia and other parts of the world,” Burks said. “Voters should have a say in these things, and we should have a really high bar for what should be allowed under the Fourth Amendment.”

Burks expressed some sympathy for those who protested bringing new ICE facilities to South Kansas City, but called the Department of Homeland Security  a proper role of the federal government. He said he would also call for reform of H-1B and other visas that companies utilize to employ foreign workers, and doubts that the tech industry and others truly need help from overseas. 

“Does any community want a prison in their backyard – No,” Burks said. “Do we want the good paying jobs those facilities would have brought to the area – Yes.”

Burks says he will join others on Capitol Hill in calling for the abolishment of the Department of Education, and push for other solutions at the state and local level. 

“We need to get back to the strengths of federalism,” Burks said. “The negative effects of Covid policies caused lasting harm to our schools and the country.” 

A strong proponent of cryptocurrency, Burks says his economic focus will also be shaped by the broader cultural indicators he sees as he looks at what’s happening to young people, beyond obstacles barring them from entering the housing market. 

“We have to create better conditions for young families – Yes, that means young people being able to buy homes,” Burks said. “We also have a falling birth rate, below replacement level, so we have work to do to create a culture where families can live, grow, and thrive.” 

Rick Brattin

Harrisonville, 46

A former marine and a current member of the Missouri Senate, Rick Brattin has run the most  visible campaign for the 5th District seat since declaring his candidacy in February. Prior to his current position, Brattin was a four-term member of the Missouri House of Representatives. He now describes himself as the MAGA candidate in campaign postings and ads, and speaks of his and other races this fall as representing an existential threat to the country. 

“[The Democrats] are electing outspoken, devout communists,” Brattin said. “We have to fight for the American way of life.”

He describes his record as “100% pro-life,” and has vowed to fight to “eradicate funding for all abortion providers” once in Congress. He previously voted to extend MIssouri’s 24-hour abortion waiting period to 72 hours and backed a bill requiring parents of minors considering an abortion to receive five days’ notice. In December 2014, he garnered national headlines when he proposed House Bill 131, legislation that would require Missouri women seeking abortions to obtain written consent from the father of the fetus, except in cases of “legitimate rape.” He promises his first-term in Congress to be just as active. 

“I’m going to look at the abortion drugs being sent through the mail,” Brattin said. “And then a Constitutional Amendment to protect life.”  

On top of his pro-life platform, Brattin is equally committed to a long-term war in Iran. 

“They wished to destroy us and Israel,” Brattin said. “We took out all the leadership there – mowing the lawn, so to speak.” 

The two-term Missouri senator says he “hopes” to not see boots on the ground, but also invokes the never-ending state of military affairs in Korea in discussing his vision for the region. 

“We may take over the Strait [of Hormuz],” Brattin said. “If that’s what it takes to bring stability.” 

In the Missouri legislature, Brattin sponsored legislation imposing penalties on companies that hire individuals without checking their immigration status, while also pushing to ban sanctuary cities. In March, he proposed Senate Bill 1616, a bill that would require all individuals to submit proof of citizenship to receive food stamps and government health care. 

Brattin has served as the Chairman Chairman of the Missouri Senate Education Committee and plans to continue his fight against “woekeism” in schools. He sponsored legislation to ban books with “visual depictions of sex acts” out of Missouri school libraries.

Bert Knox

North Kansas City, 71

A 1974 graduate of Park Hill Senior High School, Knox has not been actively campaigning. The most elusive figure in the race reached out to the Telegraph Wednesday afternoon to confirm he was still very much in the race, after running unsuccessfully for Congress in 2014 and 2016. He told the KC Star last week that his lack of attendance at recent candidate forums around the district was due to “poor experiences” during prior campaigns. On Wednesday, he elaborated what had occurred in those instances. 

“I went to one of those past forum events in Independence, and it was just a bunch of communists – it was a trap,” Knox said. “You can’t talk with anyone anymore.”

Knox labels the two biggest threats to the country as: “greed and stupid people.” He wants to see strong, uniform curriculum standards imposed at schools around the country. 

“They need to learn the U.S. and state constitution [before they graduate], just like I did,” Knox said. “They need the fundamental mathematics, how to count and recognize money, and write long-hand, not digitally.”

He says his congressional agenda will be largely driven by whatever situation is happening in real time, and identifies voter and election integrity as two core issues that concern him right now. 

“People can’t be here illegally, I don’t care what age they are,” Knox said. “The Supreme Court justice, what’s his name (John Roberts), he was supposed to vote conservative but that was lost and it’s going to be hard to ever get [birthright citizenship] corrected.” 

Knox is the only candidate in the race to speak openly about needing budget cuts that include military spending, but he also concurs with the direction President Trump has forged with regard to the Iran war. 

“I think Trump is dealing with it as securely as he can, and I believe he’s come to the realization that he’s going to try and avoid killing the civilian population as much as possible,” Knox said. “That will become increasingly difficult – it’s a conundrum.” 

A retired merchant mariner, Knox says he made many visits to the Persian Gulf region, and points to the Strait of Hormuz as an “international waterway,” one that the U.S. must assert some control of. 

“It’s ridiculous [for the Iranians] to assert any territorial claim to the Strait,” Knox said. 

He sees the federal government needing to be more focused on America’s place in the world, and maintaining dominance on the world stage, thus allowing the dollar to remain the reserve currency amongst the economic powers. 

“Being ‘number one’ in the world means investing in certain areas for humanitarian purposes – it might be wiser to spend $2 million now to avert a crisis, instead of $2 billion later,” Patty said. “Yes, we are bleeding money in some of these places, but we need to see these situations like a business that is prepared to settle things rather than spend the money on the attorneys.” 

Micah Beebe

Lee’s Summit, 42

Micah Beebe stressed his Christian faith when speaking to the Telegraph, and the role his five children, three from adoption have played in shaping concerns about the country that they and their children will inherit.

“The national debt is an immensely important topic we have to be talking about,” Beebe said. “We have a major spending problem and it’s not going to be fixed with a simple solution – frugality is something we need to talk more about in government.” 

Beebe says he will bring his commercial real estate mindset into Congress one that he says he shares with the President, one that has him comfortable cold calling strangers and attempting to establish trust out of thin air.
“Ultimately, it’s about bringing people together and building coalitions,” Beebe said. “I’m not afraid to pick up a phone and get yelled at and hear someone tell me ‘No’.” 

He says he will bring a focus on helping first-time home buyers get into a difficult housing market at a younger age by reducing government overreach and regulation. He also singles out a need for the development of more multi-family units in the urban core.

“Just the red tape in Kansas City has increased the cost of homes by 40%,” Beebe said. “I would work with state and local partners to roll back those burdensome regulations, housing development came to a screeching halt during the Biden years.”

Beebe calls Iran the leading sponsor of terrorism around the world and fully supports the decision to go to war. He says the world is a much safer place and Iranian-Americans are tremendously grateful for President Trump’s actions. He dismisses criticism that the U.S. was pulled into the war. 

“People say America is just a puppet of Israel,” Beebe said. “Do you know President Trump – do you think he walks to the beat of someone else’s drum?” 

With Amendment 3 on the ballot in November, Beebe says he hopes Missourians will vote to repeal the “right to reproductive freedom” voters passed in 2024, and would like to see more restrictions put in place, such as the “born-alive” bill Governor Kehoe just signed into law this week as a sign that their efforts have just begun. 

“It’s mind blowing that we would have to put legislation out saying you can’t kill a baby after it’s born,” Beebe said. “Right now, it’s like the wild west, and anything goes.”