Click here to read all of the Springfield Daily Citizen’s coverage of contested contests for the Missouri General Assembly in the Nov. 5 election.
In Missouri’s House District 135, two-term incumbent Rep. Betsy Fogle, a Democrat, is contested by Republican Michael Hasty, a familiar face in local politics.
Four years after narrowly defeating incumbent Republican Rep. Steve Helms, Fogle hopes to once again retain her seat in the state legislature as Hasty aims to flip the former GOP stronghold.
The district encompasses much of northeast Springfield, largely between Sunshine Street to the south and Interstate 44 north, and National Avenue to the west and Highway 65 to the east.
Who is Betsy Fogle?
A native of Springfield and graduate of Springfield Public Schools, Fogle obtained her undergraduate degree from Missouri State University and a master’s degree in sociology from the University of Arkansas.
Upon graduation, Fogle returned home to take a job with Jordan Valley Community Health Center, where she worked up until the day before she was sworn into office, helping families with a variety of nonclinical needs, including transportation, employment and affordable housing.
Fogle said her career with Jordan Valley opened her eyes to “some of the cracks in the social safety nets that impacted the day-to-day life of people here in Springfield,” which is what later inspired her to run for office.
When not in Jefferson City, Fogle now works for United Way of the Ozarks, where she performs a variety of duties as the AFL-CIO community service labor liaison, but primarily helps put working families on pathways out of poverty.
“My ‘why’ hasn’t changed, but I will say, over the course of the last four years, I have definitely developed a newfound respect for the importance of balance in the state legislature,” Fogle said. “We live in a state where one party has all of the power, and so a continued ‘why’ for me is wanting to bring that balance back, knowing that good policy is crafted when there is multiple viewpoints at the table and, right now, or in any state where one party has all the power, I think that balance is lost.”
While focused on her own reelection campaign, Fogle is hopeful that Democrats will be able to break the Republican supermajorities in the Missouri House and Senate in November, recalling her ability to flip House District 135 in 2020 and Democratic Rep. Stephanie Hein’s 2022 victory over a Republican incumbent in House District 136.
“Practically, what that does is leverage the power that we have as a party and make it to where the Republicans need our votes a little bit differently than they do now, which I think is a good thing,” Fogle said. “When you have that accountability, or when you need to compromise or collaborate to pass a piece of legislation, I think that’s better for everybody.”
Reflecting on her four years in the General Assembly, Fogle said she is most proud of her work on issues that are “important to everybody,” including a bill extending postpartum coverage for moms on Medicaid, investments in nonprofits and other health care reform legislation.
Who is Michael Hasty?
While he lived in 15 different homes as a foster kid for 14 years, Hasty primarily grew up on the Illinois side of the St. Louis metropolitan area, where he graduated from Mascoutah High School before joining the U.S. Army at age 19. Stationed at Fort Riley in north central Kansas, Hasty was deployed to Iraq in 2007.
Post-deployment, Hasty moved to Mountain Home, Arkansas with his wife, who he met while in the military, and obtained his associate’s degree from Arkansas State University.
Shortly after his first son was born, Hasty and his growing family moved to Springfield, where he earned a master’s degree in finance and global supply chain operations at MSU. Hasty now works in sales and marketing through contracts with Branson theaters, helping visitors find shows they might best enjoy.
Hasty is also the founder of the controversial Queen City Watchdog, an organization that aims to “keep the people of Springfield and Greene County informed on ongoing issues,” primarily through its Facebook page and a podcast.
Formerly registered as a nonprofit, according to Missouri Secretary of State records, Hasty dissolved the nonprofit and registered as a limited liability company because they “didn’t raise a whole lot of money, just kind of put information out there.”
Though he still co-owns the LLC, Hasty said he has “stepped back substantially” in his role with the group while running for state representative, his second official bid for public office.
Hasty previously ran for a seat on the Springfield City Council in 2021, losing to Councilmember Craig Hosmer, and picked up a packet to run for the Springfield Public Schools Board of Education in 2022, but he never officially entered the race.
In order to qualify as a candidate for public office, prospective officeholders must file an affidavit of tax payments and bonding requirements with the Missouri Department of Revenue, where they must affirm they are not aware of any delinquency of filing or payment of taxes under penalty of perjury.
While Hasty paid part of his property taxes on June 17 — after he filed to run on March 26 — he also made a payment in January, according to the Greene County Collector’s Office records.
Hasty attributed the discrepancy to an error by the county government that was discovered when he went to “re-register” his vehicle in June. Greene County Collector Allen Icet said the amount due changed after the model year of a vehicle was revised, and Hasty paid the new amount on the day of the change.
Initiative petitions and constitutional amendments
In each of the four years Fogle has served in the legislature, Republican lawmakers have sought to modify the initiative petition process by increasing the threshold of votes needed for constitutional amendments to pass and limiting foreign influence on initiative campaigns.
During the last legislative session, state lawmakers considered a bill that would have put forward a ballot measure that would require constitutional amendments receive a statewide majority and a majority vote in five of Missouri’s eight Congressional districts, an increase from the simple majority currently needed for amendments to pass.
Fogle said that Republicans’ inability to pass initiative petition legislation was symbolic of the dysfunction that happens when a supermajority of one party controls the legislature, and it was “more about power and less about party politics.”
“One of the rules I set for myself when I walked into the building was that I would never do anything to increase my power as an elected [official] and decrease the power of the people I represent,” Fogle said. “And I view the initiative petition reform as just that.”
If elected, Hasty hopes to continue such efforts to modify the initiative petition process, and suggested the criteria to amend the U.S. Constitution, which requires a two-thirds vote of both chambers of Congress or two-thirds of the states to propose an amendment, “would be a good standard here.”
“Some people may or may not know, but our Constitution, compared to the federal constitution, is substantially larger,” Hasty said. “I think that it would be a fair fight, because then we would know substantially that not just a simple majority wanted something, if that makes sense, and be more like the vast majority.”
Abortion and Amendment 3
This November, however, a simple majority will decide the fate of five constitutional amendments, including Amendment 3, which would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.
While Hasty is personally pro-life, he emphasized that Amendment 3 would be decided by the voters.
“As someone who respects the Constitution and respects our process, I’ll respect the will of the voters if I’m elected,” Hasty said. “However, I am a very pro-life person because my grandmother was pro-life, my mother was a product of a rape, and so am I. So the two women before me were pro-life, and because they were, there’s 17 people alive today.”
Recalling her experiences delivering pregnancy tests to women while working in the health care industry, Fogle believes that Missouri’s current abortion ban, which only provides exceptions for medical emergencies, is “far too extreme,” even for people who consider themselves pro-life. Fogle anticipates Missouri voters will pass Amendment 3 and expects a “continued fight” in the statehouse.
“My personal belief, and I think the belief of a lot of my constituents, regardless of how they feel about it, is that abortion is such a nuanced topic, it’s impossible to legislate,” Fogle said. “And most people recognize that when a woman is trying to get pregnant, or when a woman has had something horrible happen to her, or when a woman wants to make a choice that she wants to make for whatever reason, the last person that doctor or that patient should be calling is their elected official in Jefferson City.”
Fogle, Hasty seek foster care system reform
Amid their differences on a host of issues, Fogle and Hasty have a shared interest in improving the foster care system.
As a former foster kid himself, Hasty said he would like to look into the criteria for terminating parental rights to “make the system work for the kids,” while acknowledging that every situation needs to be considered on a case by case basis.
Recognizing the positive impact of organizations like CASA of Southwest Missouri and Man Up, Hasty also suggested that the foster care system may be underfunded on the “state side.”
“It’s not always a money issue, I don’t think,” Hasty said. “I think it’s how that money’s being used.”
Fogle, for her part, would like to see more money being spent on pay increases at the Children’s Division, which she has worked toward over the course of her first two terms in the legislature in collaboration with Republican Sen. Lincoln Hough.
“We pay our Children’s Division workers significantly less than they can make in almost any other sector, and significantly less than they make in surrounding states,” Fogle said. “That is a tough job, being tasked with the welfare and safety of kids when they’re at their most vulnerable moments is — I just can’t fathom how difficult that is for people who work in that field, and we have got to make sure they have the resources that they need, and make sure we’re taking care of the 13,000 children in foster care in the state.”
Candidates share priorities for education
Fogle and Hasty similarly place high importance on public education, though their concerns and ideas differ. As a father of four, Hasty believes that students are over-tested, and wants to better equip children “for whatever path they choose.”
“I think there’s too much of a focus on testing and getting test scores up rather than the learning and the educational process,” Hasty said. “We need to get back to teaching these kids, we need to teach kids to think, we need to teach kids to question, we need to teach them to learn, not to teach them to take tests.”
Hasty said that strategically investing in programs other than testing could lead to an uptick in people going to college and trade schools, which could have a positive impact on the economy.
Fogle said that, despite the recent increase to base teacher pay, the state is still “significantly underinvesting in what we pay our educators,” and is particularly concerned that the expansion of private school tax credits through the state’s MOScholars program will further take away from investments in public education.”
“I believe one of the things that makes this country the greatest country in the world is that we have a public education system that serves the needs of all kids,” Fogle said. “And if we chip away at that and make education something that only those with money can afford, that is not a path I want us as a state or as a country to go down.”
Finances aside, Fogle called on the state legislature to stop “weaponizing” public education and show support for teachers, which she said have been subject to negative rhetoric in recent years.
Fogle well ahead of Hasty in fundraising
According to the most recent campaign finance reports from both candidates, filed Sept. 5, Fogle boasts a significant edge in fundraising, with $91,834 on hand.
Fogle’s campaign raised more than $20,000 over the previous reporting period, including donations from Charlie O’Reilly, Springfield City Councilmember Craig Hosmer, former city manager Tom Finnie and a handful of political action committees.
With $3,070 on hand, Hasty raised $2,250 over the previous reporting period, including $2,000 from Springfield Public School Board of Education member Maryam Mohammadkhani, who contributed a total of $4,000 to Hasty’s campaign.
(Editor’s note: Since December 2022, Daily Citizen Board Chairman Thomas Carlson’s wife Chandler, as well as board members Jim Anderson and M. Suzanne Shaw, have contributed $1,675, $1,354 and $150, respectively, to Fogle’s campaign. Board members play no role in news coverage decisions.)
When, where and how to vote
When: The general election will be held on Nov. 5, 2024. Polls will open at 6 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.
Where: Greene County voters can find their polling location on the Greene County’s Clerk’s website. If you are registered to vote in another county, the Secretary of State’s Office recommends you confirm your polling location with your local election authority.
How: You must be registered to vote, and show an acceptable form of identification to receive a ballot. You can check your voter registration on the Secretary of State’s website. The deadline to register to vote has passed. If you are unable to vote on election day, you can request an absentee ballot through your local election authority. Absentee ballots can be submitted in-person or by mail.
