The future is now!

I first ran for office in the year 2017. I chalk this up to the fact that I have always been a student of history (ultimately earning my master's in history education at Grand Canyon University). So, I signed up to run for Mayor of my hometown of Branson, Missouri in that race and ended up receiving about a third of the vote. Out of the box, I was relatively proud of that showing and my fellow community members knew that there would be a place for my ideas within our local government. Those ideas centered around my campaign platform known as the Song of Hope. Essentially the Song of Hope became an advocacy organization that lobbied on behalf of the local live music show industry. See, the live music shows are what built Branson’s success in the 1990s to a nationally known tourist destination, but there were some in the community that wanted us to move away from that tentpole. However, I strongly disagreed with that self-centered adjustment to what we offered as a community and became a champion of our live music shows. Meanwhile, I would continue to run for office, facing off against what I “affectionately” called the Branson Establishment each and every time. I ran for Alderman a couple more times receiving around that same 30% mark but did achieve some breakthrough resume goals along the way including being named to the Planning & Zoning Commission and the Branson Parks Board. But I did realize that some things needed to change if I were ever going to break through and gain a seat on the Aldermanic dais. In my 4th race (running against the same opponent that I faced the second time around) I started to receive some real donations and public endorsements that I hadn’t gotten up until that point. Then Covid hit. 

The beginning of the pandemic was a time of uncertainty to say the least. Regardless of one’s thoughts on the political machinations during this era, it is undeniable that misinformation made its way into the public zeitgeist. Therefore, during the public meetings at city hall regarding mask mandates, I stepped up and performed one of the most consequential civic acts in my career up until that point and live streamed the meetings to the public. Believe it or not, Branson did not have a mechanism to record the meetings and broadcast them at this time. But my live streams reached 80,000 viewers and I gained a certain amount of notoriety that I hadn’t achieved up until that point. So much so that a week after my final stream, the city installed cameras and created a YouTube page to do this very thing. 

Now, despite the momentum I had at this time, the election would actually be postponed from April to June of that year. Shenanigans ensued and “drive-thru” voting placed the election in a separate Ward from the one I represented. I could write an entire book about the incongruity of that election (and trust me I will someday), but nevertheless I ended up losing by only a dozen or so votes. But as always, I had a plan.

The very next day, I announced that once again I would be running for Mayor and giving the citizens of Ward 2 and Ward 3 a chance to vote for me given that I had gained a significant amount of support in the various districts of the city. Launching my campaign early gave me a heads up on the competition but ultimately it would become one of the most hotly contested Mayoral races in Branson history. The 4 main candidates for the seat were myself, Larry Milton, former Mayor Karen Best and current incumbent at the time, Edd Akers. All the prognostications said that with the roughly 2,000 voters that tend to show up in Branson Mayoral elections, each of the 4 candidates had about 500 they could bank on. But something happened then that I did not expect. 

Throughout the entire race I kept telling people if either myself or my good friend Larry Milton (alderman at the time) won, the town would be in good shape. And then it dawned on me. In order to truly make a difference, the best move at the time was to drop out of the race and endorse Milton and the rest is history. He ended up winning that race (with my 500 votes, giving him about 1,100 overall) and he helped me finally get elected as an Alderman exactly one year later. Over the next couple of years, we also got a few other close allies elected to the board and Branson regained its footing as the preeminent tourist destination in the Midwest.