By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A former St. Joseph firefighter who served eight years in the Missouri House is running for state Senate.
Delus Johnson will run to succeed Sen. Dan Hegeman, a Republican from Cosby, when Hegeman leaves the legislature after this session due to term limits.
Johnson, a Republican, says he hopes to help agriculture if elected to the Missouri Senate, pointing out though Missouri has the second most farms of any state, it ranks only 15th in exports.
“I think we need to make it easier for Missouri farmers to export ag products to other countries,” Johnson tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “We’re the nation’s second largest producer of hay. We’re the nation’s third largest producer of beef cows and my goal will be to make it easier to connect Missouri farmers to overseas buyers.”
Johnson served 20 years in the St. Joseph Fire Department before retiring as a captain to begin working in the House. He ran briefly for Senate previously, but stepped out of the way to clear the path for Hegeman to run for the seat.
Johnson first won election to the Missouri House in 2010 and served from 2011 to 2019, representing District 9, which is comprised of eastern Buchanan County and Andrew County.
Now that Hegeman is leaving due to term limits, Johnson is back in the race.
“So this is a goal that I’ve had for over eight years and I’ve kind of been waiting for my time and I’m planning on running a very aggressive campaign,” Johnson says. “I do plan on serving as the next senator from northwest Missouri and I’m definitely going to work as hard as I can to get there.”
Johnson says he will run on his eight-year conservative voting record while serving in the House. And Johnson says he will be a strong advocate for agriculture in the state Senate.
“I’m always going to do just like what I did in the House,” Johnson says. “I’ll always support Missouri’s largest industry and that’s agriculture. That will be one of my top priorities as a state senator.”