Donnie Owens interview with B Magazine

There are a number of important political races in our area this year, a few, because of term limits, pitting talented individuals against each other in districts without an incumbent. The following interview is with Donnie Owens, a Democrat running for Senate District 27. The district encompasses all of the counties of Bollinger, Cape Girardeau, Madison, Mississippi, Perry and Scott. Owens was asked the same questions as his Republican counterparts and chose to response with the following. To read interviews with other candidates profiled in B Magazine, click here.

Donnie Owens

Democrat candidate for Missouri Senate District 27

Owens previously ran for Missouri Senate in 2004 and 2016, losing to Jason Crowell and Wayne Wallingford. He describes himself as a "semi-retired truck driver" who is an "Air Force veteran (Aug. '69 to Feb. '76), airborne language specialist (intelligence) graduate of the Defense Language Institute, Presidio of Monterey, California, and Department of State, Foreign Services Institute, Roslynn, Virginia, (Bulgarian basic and diplomatic)." "I have no election committee since I am not accepting donations from anyone," he wrote. "If you accept donations from PACs to buy your job, then you owe someone something down the line." He responded to the invitation to participate in this Q&A with the following note:

Owens: I thank you for the opportunity to be interviewed. However, after events in Washington, D.C., I am not in the mood for a feel-good fluff piece. You want to know me, ask some questions with merit and do not edit my answers.

As a former member of military intelligence (US Air Force Security Service -- Bulgarian language specialist, graduate of the Defense Language Institute and Department of State Foreign Services Institute), I take offense when our community is degraded by the nation's leadership and instead "believes Mr. Putin."

Traitor is the correct definition of that person.

You are ignoring the current unrest in order to showcase business savvy. The true test of a leader is not what he or she knows personally but who they hire to help carry out their goals and the trust they put in those they hire.

A leader cannot know everything there is to know about everything; therefore, a leader must trust his assistants to give him or her the information necessary to make an informed decision.

The reason I am running is so that the democrats in this district have a choice and a way to show the GOP that they do not have a mandate.

I am a moderate something the GOP doesn't know the meaning of, since one of my opponents is a "Fearless Conservative." What is that? In my book, that translates to radical, which has bad connotations all its own.

I am sure this article will never see the light of day.