Voters in Missouri’s 8th Congressional District will have the chance to cast a vote for FDR in the August 2024 primary election.
Franklin Delano Roth II of the Hillsboro area has announced his candidacy for the Democratic Party’s nomination for the U.S. representative seat currently held by Republican Jason Smith of Salem.
Roth, 65, acknowledged that his name will garner him some attention.
“Denny is really what everybody has ever called me, but I’m named for my dad, who was born in 1934 as a Depression baby after the president at the time.”
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president from 1933 to 1945.
Roth, like his father, was a grain farmer in southern Indiana.
“I was a farmer for 26 years,” he said. “After my dad retired, I left there and moved to Missouri and went into ag sales.”
Roth said he worked for Monsanto and Land of Lakes before getting out of that business to become a truck driver for Essex Express, from which he retired last year.
He said he’s always been interested in politics and graduated at the age of 30 from the University of Southern Indiana with a bachelor’s degree in social science teaching with an emphasis in history.
“I went to college because I wanted something to fall back on if I wanted to get out of farming,” he said. “While I didn’t end up teaching high school history, I have always had an interest in history and politics and have kept up with it. I’m really intrigued by it.”
Instead of teaching, Roth said he returned to the family farm to help his father after graduation.
“The 1980s were a tough time for farmers, and we had some droughts in our area,” he said. “But we worked our way through it. So I know what it means to work hard, to try to make ends meet and what blue-collar work is about.
“I think I have a lot in common with the people of Jefferson County and the entire district.”
The 8th Congressional District, which was redrawn after the 2020 Census, includes the eastern half of Jefferson County and spreads south and west to include the Bootheel and counties west of there.
Like his almost-namesake, Roth said if elected, he would work toward advancing many traditional Democratic beliefs.
“I’m all for universal health care,” he said. “The U.S. is the only developed country in the world with a for-profit health system. No one else wants that kind of system. It’s about time to help people from having to worry about whether to pay for insulin or keep their lights on.
“I’m also all in on reproductive rights. I’m pro-choice. I believe a lot more people than you’d think in the district feel that way, if the results of the elections in redder states like Kansas and Ohio are any indication.”
Roth also said he would work to bring more manufacturing jobs to the district.
“We’re losing factories,” he said. “Why can’t a (computer) chip manufacturer locate in the district? We have a lot to sell. We’re in the middle of the country, we have the Mississippi River, railroad lines and major interstates.”
Roth said he was inspired by the death of his older son, Jared, in 2020 from an overdose of a mixture of heroin and fentanyl to prevent others from going down the same path.
“I don’t have all the answers,” Roth said. “If I had the answers, I wouldn’t have had to bury my son. But I do know that we have to find some way to stop the flow of illegal drugs into this country by better monitoring the ports of entry, where 99 percent of it comes through. I’m been reaching out to people who know more about this subject.
“But we’ve been fighting a war on drugs at least since Ronald Reagan was president, and it’s getting worse.”
If Roth prevails in the Democratic primary in August, he knows he’ll be fighting an uphill battle in the general election, where Smith will likely be seeking a sixth two-year term.
“I’m under no illusions about this whole thing,” Roth said. “Jason Smith is chairman of one of the most powerful committees in the House, the Ways and Means Committee, and he will have access to possibly an endless amount of money.
“But the thing I’d like people to know is even though I’m running as a Democrat in a supposedly Republican district, we’re not as different as people like to think we are. I think the national media profits off of keeping people apart.
“But I’m a blue-collar retiree who spent a lot of his time on farms. I’m one of the people of this district.”
He said his wife of 16 years, Sandy, and his son, Clay, are helping set up his campaign.
“Sandy encouraged me to run, and she’s been setting up a lot of the social media involved in running a campaign these days. I’m not going to be able to do this without them.”
According to the Federal Election Commission, Randi McCallian of Newburg has registered as a candidate in the Democratic primary. Smith has announced he will run against James Snider III of St. Mary, who has registered as a challenger in the Republican primary.
Candidate filing for the August primary election runs from Feb. 27, 2024, through March 26.
U.S. representatives are paid $174,000 a year.