MOUNTAIN GROVE, Mo. – Hannah Kelly ran for office hoping to protect the Constitution and her constituents from government overreach.
As the incoming state representative for the 141st District – Kelly beat her primary opponent and faces no general election opposition – she’s already working to achieve her goals.
Kelly has already had a chance to do some work on her primary goal, constituent service, especially since her predecessor, former Rep. Tony Dugger, resigned in August. She’s worked with Sen. Mike Cunningham and Rep. Lyndall Fraker to try to help some constituents already.
“We’ve been able to put our heads together and help constituents in a way that gets me very excited to get to that number one priority as soon as I’m sworn in and can actually have a door open and an office to call home base,” Kelly said.
For 10 years Kelly has run her own real estate company and she said that experience will help her achieve her goals for her and her district in Jefferson City. She said she’s learned that you have to bring everyone to the table and not be afraid to listen.
“I have spent my entire career bringing people to the table,” Kelly said. “If there’s one thing I understand, it’s the fact that you don’t have to be the smartest person in the room. But you have to know people, have relationships built, be able to communicate in such a way that they will come to the table and listen to the problem at hand and not just listen but work with you to find a solution. And that requires strong relationships, not being afraid to put your foot down.”
It’s her business experiences that encouraged Kelly to consider running for office in the first place. She said that she noticed the ways in which government was overreaching and encroaching on people’s lives.
“I was in the real estate business for 10 years and sat across the table from some people in all sides of our economy, you know the business owner, the farmer, the small family, the single person, the senior citizen making decisions about real estate, which we all know in this part of the country is some people’s biggest investment of their life,” she said. “People will have real estate investments before they’ll ever have a portfolio of stocks and CBs.”
But she noticed and began talking about the ways in which she thought government was encroaching on people in these areas. Eventually, with Dugger term limited, her Uncle Van Kelly encouraged her to run for the seat the same seat Van had held before Dugger.
“Our Constitution is our backbone and it reminds us of what’s important, including our Judeo-Christian beliefs,” Kelly said about deciding to run. “I believe that’s something as a nation and a state that we have to get back to and I follow and open door to make a difference. I follow an open door to be a voice that could engage all sectors of our voting populous in a new way here in the southwest part of the state. And I’m a Christian and after much prayer and consideration decided to go through the door and if God wants me to walk through it, I better walk through it.”
Her first year in the legislature, Kelly wants to learn and listen and said she’ll have an open door policy.
“There’s something that you learn when you want to be a younger member of any profession and that is that you have to show up. You have to show up, you have to not be afraid to ask questions and you have to not be afraid to listen,” she said. “My goal in the coming year is to listen more than I talk, but when I talk that time and attention be spent towards the needs and concerns of my constituents and number two towards building relationships with the people that I plan on working for in the near future and Lord-willing in the years to come.”
Kelly plans to focus on a couple of issue areas during her first session. She wants to serve on an agriculture committee because agriculture is important to her district. She’s also focused on keeping money from funding cloning and other pro-life priorities.
And she said she’s pro-right-to-work, an issue likely to appear again during the 2017 session.
“I want to be someone that stands firm and yet has an open door and is open-minded to what we need to do to meet the bigger goal for this state and that is to strengthen our economy, create more jobs, which to me is making Missouri a Right-to-Work state,” Kelly said. “It’s one of my highest priorities. I’ll be on that bandwagon all day long.”
No matter the issue, Kelly said her focus is representing her district, the Constitution, and her core values. She said she’ll listen to all sides, but her core values will be her guide and that’s how she wants to be known.
She said she wants people to think: “Hannah is someone who isn’t afraid to go to work and get things done on behalf of her people and the state of Missouri with strong core convictions, core values, yet an open mind, an open door and a willingness to hear all sides of the issues.”
