Davis talks about goals, ideas ahead of August 4 election

You may see an unfamiliar name on the ballot during the August election. The name Trent Davis may be new to some, but he is no stranger to the Branson area—and he is running for Missouri State Representative District 156.

Davis is a Branson native, born at Skaggs Hospital, now Cox Branson, and raised right here in the Ozarks. Davis graduated from Hollister High School in 2011 and has worked in a variety of customer service and retail management positions since that time. At times, work took him away from Branson, and although Trent enjoyed seeing other parts of the country, he always prefers coming back to the area he loves.

Davis (Photo submitted)

Trent and his beautiful wife, Tiffany, have been married nearly 15 years. The pair struck up a friendship during high school.

“I knew back then that I loved her and wanted to spend my life with her—she is seriously the most amazing woman ever,” said Davis. “Together we have three amazing daughters who make me proud every single day. My oldest, Ashley (15) was recently in the High School Musical 2 Junior play at the Historic Owens Theater. I was such a proud dad watching her perform on that stage. She is also an amazing artist. My middle daughter, Sophia (11) has always been my sporty daughter. She loves to rollerblade and ride her bike all over. Once she sets her mind to do something, she does it and does it well. My youngest daughter, Jane (9), is a great mix of my two older daughters. She is creative and artistic. She is an animal lover, loves to rollerblade and ride her bike and has the biggest heart you could imagine.”

Davis attributes his strong work ethic and his parenting skills to his mother Trish.

“My mother taught me from a young age to never quit anything you start,” explained Davis. “You see it through to the end and show up every day, giving it your all. She took great care of my brother and I while my father worked on the road to help provide for us. My family is my backbone and who made me who I am today. Some of my biggest supporters are also my mother and father-in-law, Mike and Angie. They moved here in the early ‘90s and have been small business owners and loyal parents.”

Davis made the decision to run for office last year, but it was actually a dream he held since he was a child, and toured the state capitol with his boy scout troop. After seeing the rotunda and the officers, and visiting the House floor, Davis knew that was where he was meant to be.

“My life’s purpose is to help as many people as I can, and I thought to myself that one of the ways I could do that was to become a State Representative for the area I love most in this world. This area holds so much of who I am today, and I want to find ways to make it better. We have such an amazing and diverse community who works hard every day to make the Branson area one of the top tourist destinations in the world.”

Davis has established a catchy campaign slogan: “When Missouri speaks, Trent listens.”

Said Davis, “For far too long, our General Assembly has willfully ignored the Missouri voter. That has caused the people in Missouri to lose trust in their votes and makes them feel like their voice does not matter. We have an amazing form of government here in this state and what makes it great is the initiative petition process. In Missouri, the initiative petition process allows citizens to propose changes to state law or the state constitution without going through the legislature. This process gives Missouri voters a way to enact laws or amend the state constitution directly when they believe the legislature is not addressing an issue. But, just about every time the citizens in Missouri get something passed by this process, the legislators turn around and amend it to try to override it by putting it back on the ballot with deceptive language. I know I’m getting tired of voting for something I believe will help our community just for it to be overturned or completely gutted, and several other people are as well.”

Another area that Davis is passionate about is education. primarily due to the fact that Missouri ranks 49th in the nation in education and in teacher pay, and funding for programs geared towards children and education are often cut.  Davis plans to introduce legislation that will bring universal breakfast and lunch to all students, and plans to work to protect the workforce, not just in the lakes area, but across the state.

“I feel the best way I can serve the people of District 156 is to listen to their needs,” said Davis. “I want to focus on the real issues that our state faces, and not non-issues that have been taking up precious time. We need to be focused on real issues like infrastructure, the trafficking issues, invasion of privacy, education and keeping data centers away from our lakes. I want to make everyday people’s lives easier and less hectic. I feel like I know exactly what the people really want because I’m not a politician. I’m a concerned citizen who does not want to sit behind a keyboard complaining about all the things that need to be fixed. Instead, I’m stepping up and standing out to fight for what myself and so many others in this state need.”

Davis continued, “I have talked with my opponent in this election, Brian Seitz. I have the utmost respect for him as a person and he and I agree on a lot of very important issues, but we also disagree on a number of issues as well. He has served as our State Representative for two terms, diligently. At the beginning of this year, after I announced my campaign, I talked to him on the issues I want to work on when elected. One of those issues was universal breakfast and lunch. He sponsored a bill to try and make that happen. Unfortunately, it did not move through, but it is definitely a bipartisan issue that needs to be addressed. I look forward to this campaign season and the long road ahead because when Missouri speaks, Trent listens!”