VILLAGE OF FOUR SEASONS, Mo. — Three candidates for Missouri’s open U.S. Senate seat answered questions during a forum on Friday at the Lake of the Ozarks. A fourth skipped the event.
Libertarian Jonathan Dine, Democrat Trudy Busch Valentine and Constitution Party candidate Paul Venable stood alongside an empty podium with Republican nominee Eric Schmitt’s name on it.
It was the second time since 1988 that a major party candidate didn’t show up to the Missouri Press Association candidate forum, which is held every two years, said Mark Maassen, executive director of the press association.
that the candidate only planned to join debates that are televised in prime time to a statewide audience.
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Candidates that did show up Friday faced an hour of questioning from journalists representing publications across the state.
Both Dine and Valentine both agreed that there should be a federal law to protect access to abortion. Venable said there should not.
“I don’t want states to criminalize reproductive rights,†Dine said. “Every once in a while the federal government has to step up and become the champion of your rights.â€
“That choice should be between a woman and her doctor,†Valentine said.
On whether there should be a federal law to outlaw discrimination against LGBTQ people, Valentine said, “I believe that all people have the right to live the authentic life that they want to live.â€
“They are unable to do that,†Venable said of Congress. “That’s why we have states.â€
“There are certain times where your rights need to be outlined,†Dine said.
Candidates were also asked about President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan. Valentine declined to give an endorsement, saying the waiver doesn’t do away with core problems facing higher education.
She also said marijuana legalization should be left to the states, but added that she would support Amendment 3, a plan to legalize the recreational use of marijuana on the Nov. 8 ballot.
“This is a very important issue to me because I had a son that died of an opioid overdose,†Valentine said. “I think we need to legalize commercial marijuana.
“We also need to make sure that we tell our kids every single day that any kind of drugs they use — marijuana, alcohol, nicotine — can hurt their brain development,†Valentine said.
“Marijuana needs to be a state issue,†Venable said.
Dine said he was sentenced to three years in prison for marijuana possession in 2004. “I’m now a convicted felon,†he said. “I’m also now an authorized cultivator thanks to the state of Missouri.
“So I find it ironic that they at once sent me to jail for something and now they permit me to do it if I pay them their extortion fee,†Dine said.
The candidates were also asked about foreign ownership of farmland; Schmitt has been criticized for a vote he took in the Missouri Senate to allow it.
“Eric Schmitt allowed hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland to be sold to communist China,†Valentine said. “That is just plain wrong. American farms should be owned by Americans.â€
The Associated Press said the last time a major party candidate for U.S. Senate or governor skipped the press association’s candidate forums was in September 2000, when then-Gov. Mel Carnahan, a Democrat, was a no-show at a U.S. Senate forum in ºüÀêÊÓƵ. That forum went ahead as planned with Republican candidate John Ashcroft and two others.