Scott City businessman to run for Missouri House seat

Scott City real estate agent and small-business owner Will Perry will seek a state House seat next year, setting up a Republican primary battle with Democrat-turned-Republican Jamie Burger.

Perry and Burger are seeking the 148th District House seat now held by Republican Rep. Holly Rehder, who will not be able to run in 2020 because of term limits.

A Navy veteran, Perry, 30, runs a small warehousing business and serves on the Southeast Missouri Realtors Board of Directors.

“As a lifelong entrepreneur and military veteran, I’ve seen first hand how government hurts more than it helps,” Perry said Monday in a news release.

“Limited government is crucial in advancing the American dream. I want to see more Missourians starting businesses, creating jobs and keeping more of their hard-earned money,” he said.

Perry, who served in the Navy’s special operations helicopter squadron, described himself as a conservative.

“I want to advance our rights to bear arms and to fight for the unborn,” he said in the release.

He said his legislative priorities are to create jobs, improve education and promote “Southeast Missouri values in Jefferson City.”

Perry added he supports the use of technology in educating students.

Agriculture, he said, is the largest industry in the 148th District, which encompasses parts of Mississippi and Scott counties.

“As the grandson of a farmer, we have the right to manage our properties as good stewards of the land without government interference,” Perry said.

“I believe in restricting the use of eminent domain, sound river-management policies that do not threaten the flooding of farmland, supporting current state law allowing children to work on family farms,” he said

The federal Army Corps of Engineers’ should focus on flood prevention rather than environmental concerns, such as wildlife, Perry said.

He added he is not a career politician, but a former Navy rescue swimmer who wants to continue to serve, this time in political office.

“I think you see veterans all over America standing up and wanting to serve again,” he said.

When Hurricane Harvey pummeled the Houston area in 2017, Perry and other former Navy swimmers helped rescue more than 100 people, plus many animals, according to the release.

Burger, Perry’s opponent in the GOP primary next year, is a former presiding commissioner of Scott County, who lost his reelection bid last year while running as a Democrat.

Burger, who served 18 years on the county commission, said he switched parties late last year because his views “more align with the Republican Party.”

He told the Southeast Missouri in December, “I have always prided myself as being a fiscally conservative guy.”

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