Get to know: Josh Smead, Democratic Candidate for U.S. Representative, District 6
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (KQTV) -- Josh Smead, who runs an architecture business with his wife, hopes to become the next U.S. Representative for Missouri's 6th District.
Smead and his wife began calling the Liberty, Missouri, area home in 2017 after falling in love with the Midwest's architectural opportunities.
"Kansas City has an amazing architecture industry," Smead said. "I worked in sports architecture for quite a while in Kansas City, working on NFL projects, NBA arenas, very large-scale master plans."
He originally hails from Harrisonburg, Virginia; however, he chose the Kansas City area after meeting his wife in college and settling on a central location. Smead has planted new roots in Missouri and is passionate about fighting for the ideals of the state's citizens.
"I'm very much a 'be the change' person, and if we're unhappy with the way the world is and the way our leadership is, throw your hat in the ring," Smead shared. "Try it out and try and fix it because I don't want to leave some of these larger issues to my children to have to deal with as well."
KQ2 caught up with the Democratic candidate at the end of his Whistle Stop Bus Tour, which made its final stop at the Trail Theater in downtown St. Joseph. Smead is speaking about the issues that he believes Missourians in the district are worried about, such as the rise in data center projects.
"I actually support a national temporary moratorium on data center construction. (It is) big issue I see, especially out in the rural areas. There's a $6 billion facility they're planning up in Nodaway County. There's no set of building codes or regulations specifically dealing with data centers," Smead said. "There are new building typologies. So I think we need to pump the brakes a little bit, especially with the mega facilities that are going into rural communities."
The campaign trail for the candidates in this congressional race has been an ever-changing road. Over the battle over which congressional map to use this November, Smead said his campaign has been ready for whatever map was picked, but now he wants accountability for how the state got to this situation.
"Our secretary of state, Danny Hoskins, here dropped the ball big time. I know he likes his baseball metaphors, but listen, he really, he made it so that we're in a situation now that's unprecedented in American history. The first time that the primary maps don't match the general election maps. And we have one man solely to blame for that," Smead said. "It's been a catastrophe, in my opinion. However, when I started running about a year and a half ago, it was on a 39-county map here in the sixth district. I've been hitting all of those counties continuously. So when those six counties down in the southeast corner of my district came back in, I was already right out there multiple times."
On how he would address current topics like the U.S.-Iran War if he were to get to Washington, D.C., Smead said the following.
"I can't believe that Donald Trump is making George W. Bush look like a genius when it comes to Middle Eastern warfare. So here we are. The Iran war has been an unmitigated disaster. As we can see, it's continued to spiral out of control. What I worry about is that the rubber stamps in Congress right now, Sam Graves and his Sam Graves 2.0 replacement, they are, they accept this," Smead said about the war. "What we're seeing is costing America 18 service members' lives. Eight sailors tried to kill themselves on the USS Abraham Lincoln. And now they're even talking about doing things like live-streaming executions. We are headed the wrong way when it comes to our military. And I've been hearing about this, that we've been on the trail."
Along with topics like the U.S.-Iran War, Smead also shared his stance on rising fuel prices.
"I think this is a great example of why we need to diversify our energy production, you know, and it's shameful that we have Donald Trump as the American president now calling for a new president of Ukraine, because they're going too hard on Russia when they're hitting all these refineries, you know, and at the end of the day, we wouldn't be in this position if Donald Trump hadn't started this catastrophic intervention in Iran, which is blocking the Strait of Hormuz," Smead said about prices at the pump. "if this is the thing that helps push people towards diverse energy electric vehicles, all these alternatives which we need, we don't need to go too far and one way or the other, but having choices, having options, I think goes a long way. And as we can see, when you have catastrophic foreign policy blunders like what Donald Trump is currently doing in the Middle East, it is going to cause a lot of increased prices."
Smead also shared what he said in his conversation about how fuel prices aren't affecting only cities, but rural areas too.
"I'm talking with farmers and ranchers all over north Missouri who are dealing with $6 diesel going into harvest season. You know, among all the many other pressures that they're already facing with tariffs and otherwise. So, we need to do whatever we can to bring down those prices on them."
Smead will face two other candidates: Chris Stigall on the Republican ticket and Andy Maidment, running as a Libertarian option, on Nov. 3. To learn more about Smead and his campaign, click here.
