By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A veteran state representative and long-time agriculture educator emerged from a three-way race to win the Republican nomination for the sprawling 12th Missouri state Senate District.
Rep. Rusty Black of Chillicothe easily won the primary, garnering nearly 65% of the vote over Rep. J. Eggleston and former Rep. Delus Johnson.
“I mean, I was hopeful that I could get up in the 50-percent range and the fact that we did so well was surprising, honestly,” Black says. “I attribute the fact, not to what Karie and I did directly, but what our campaign people did in each one of those counties.”
Black taught agricultural classes at Nodaway-Holt and Chillicothe for 32 years before retiring to run for state representative; first winning a seat in the Missouri House in 2016.
Black credits all those years in the agriculture classroom in large part for his victory.
“It may sound corny to some people, but teaching ag in a rural district like this for 33 years and building those relationships, I think that was an advantage for Rusty Black.”
The 12th Missouri state Senate District is huge, covering 19 counties that stretch from Atchison County, as far northwest as you can go in Missouri, to Chariton County in south-central Missouri.
Black says you cannot cover it yourself during a campaign; you must have help. No matter, Black pledges to be easily accessible if he becomes the district’s senator.
“I hopefully will be lucky enough to represent an area that really doesn’t want government involved,” Black says with a chuckle. “But, at the same time, those citizens need to be involved in government and know what Rusty Black’s doing and share their (thoughts). Hopefully, some times they thank me and hopefully they have no trouble getting a hold of me and say, ‘This was stupid. Why’d you do that?’”
Black faces Democrat Michael Baumli of Maryville in November.