BOWLING GREEN, Mo. — Cindy O’Laughlin is not a politician. And she’ll be the first person to tell you that.
“I’m a businesswoman,” said the co-owner of Leo O’Laughlin, Inc. and state Senate candidate. “I’d like to make a positive change in our area and then go home.”
O’Laughlin co-owns a trucking and ready-mix concrete company with her husband, is a former school-board member, and has been active in supporting her community.
At the Pike County Fair last week, she got down to her roots at the 4-H/FFA livestock auction. O’Laughlin lived on a farm until her middle school years when her family made the move to Missouri from Illinois.
Walking through the livestock barn before the auction started, O’Laughlin talked to the 4-H and FFA members who exhibited livestock at the fair. One girl had bonded with her charolais-cross steer, another exhibitor was looking forward to showing at the state fair, and another wanted to breed his ewe lamb.
When it came time for the auction to start, O’Laughlin still hadn’t figured out what she wanted to purchase. She has already been to several county fairs — seven, to be exact — and supported the exhibitors. They still had a steer in the freezer from 2017, even after dividing it up with her family, and had purchased a ham previously.
She threw her number up on several projects, but wasn’t the winning bid. As the auction got to the second page of sale list, O’Laughlin found the project she was going to support: a boy showing his blue ewe lamb.
At the Pike County Fair the exhibitor keeps the market value of project along with 50 percent of what the project sells for above market value and the other 50 percent goes to support the program.
“Good job,” O’Laughlin told the exhibitor who was looking forward to taking his ewe lamb home. She repeated the sentiment to several 4-H and FFA members as she existed the barn.
“I like supporting the program because it teaches them valuable skills,” said O’Laughlin.
“I would like to see more done in our rural areas. I know that we have a lot of little towns and counties that are struggling and I don’t think they are getting the attention they should,” she said. “I would like to see our communities thrive a little bit more, maybe have some more economic opportunity.”
She also wants to focus on expanding broadband and overhauling the government assistance program.
“We need broadband and we don’t have it in a lot of areas…the world is a connected place,” she said. “I know the new farm bill has some funding for broadband but I feel like without a fierce advocate we won’t get it.”
O’Laughlin also wants to advocate for overhauling the entitlement system.
“We have an entitlement system that is paying people more to stay home than employers can pay them to work. I’m not against assisting people when they need it. But it should be set up in such a way that they can work their way up and out of it. The way they currently have it designed, if you go past this artificial boundary in earnings, they jerk the whole thing out from under you.”
With her determination, experience, work ethic, and overall skill set, O’Laughlin feels that she is the person that can get something done in the Missouri Senate.
“I want to accomplish what I want to accomplish. I’m a pretty good driving force when I want to be.”
In the Republican primary race, O’Laughlin will face Reps. Nate Walker, Lindell Shumake, and Craig Redmon. The winner of that race will then be up against Democrat Crystal Stephens in November.
Alisha Shurr was a reporter for The Missouri Times and The Missouri Times Magazine. She joined The Missouri Times in January 2018 after working as a copy editor for her hometown newspaper in Southern Oregon. Alisha is a graduate of Kansas State University.
