Dustin Stanton is running against incumbent Jenna Redel for Boone County treasurer this November.
The 31-year-old Centralia native says that running a business, serving on agricultural boards and acting as president of the Columbia Farmers Market has given him significant experience that translates well to the Boone County treasurer’s office.
In fact, his financial portfolio began in elementary school.
After developing that portfolio for more than 20 years, Stanton applied his knowledge in the treasurer’s office when he was appointed in April 2022. He lost the position last year to Redel.
Stanton is running as a Republican but considers himself more of an Independent, emphasizing the nonpartisan nature of the office he is campaigning for.
“It is an administrative office at the end of the day. So, regardless — Democrat or Republican — that doesn’t matter in this office. It really doesn’t,” Stanton said. “We don’t vote on policy, we don’t vote on legislation. It’s just receiving the money, paying the bills, making the investments and then collecting, and then redispersing unclaimed property for folks.”
Building on a l-egg-acy
Stanton comes from a line of farmers dating back to 1845. His parents grow soybeans and milo, which is used for livestock feed, and tend cattle on 1,400 acres in Centralia. When he was 6 years old, he added another component to the family business: selling eggs.
“(My teacher) brought six fertile eggs into my first grade class, and then someone got to take the chickens home. I was the only one who wanted them; I put my name in a hat for them. Another girl won them,” Stanton said. “I was devastated.”
Stanton told his uncle what had happened, and the next day he came home to six chickens to take care of with his brother, Austin Stanton. Selling eggs around the community became the boys’ “allowance,” Stanton said.
Stanton’s parents expected him to calculate profit and loss as soon as the chickens started producing. He says the county treasurer uses that same basic calculation, just on a bigger scale.
Stanton Brothers Eggs has grown over the past 20 years, going from six chickens to about 7,200. With that many chickens, the brothers end up with about 42,000 eggs to process and sell every week. Unlike other farms, the Stanton brothers are responsible for every stage of this process, from the chickens laying the eggs to the eggs being sold to the customer.
Community involvement
Stanton Brothers Eggs can be found throughout Boone County, including at the Columbia Farmers Market, where Stanton began selling eggs in 2007.
After graduating college, the farmers market started reaching out to Stanton about joining its board of directors. He turned them down twice, but he said that a love for his community and a self-professed inability to say no ultimately led him to accept a position on the board. After a few years, he became president and serves in that role to this day.
“I love seeing what the organization does, how it gives back — not only to the farmers but to the community,” Stanton said.
Stanton has served his community in other ways as well. He was president of the Boone County Farm Bureau from 2017 to 2019 and is currently on the organization’s board. His lengthy resume of community involvement, from the State Poultry Advisory Committee to serving on Sen. Josh Hawley’s Agriculture Advisory Board, also includes being a minister at Hallsville Church of Christ.
Stanton’s upbringing and faith contributed to his work in Boone County.
“I’m a firm believer (that) if you’ve been blessed, you should bless others,” Stanton said. “If you have something that’s not great, you should make it better for the next person to have. If something is already great, you should make it even better to carry on to the next generation.”
This outlook applies to all areas of his life, including his campaign.
Teresa Sutton, the deputy treasurer of Stanton’s campaign, said that she has worked with him on various projects over the last 15 years, many of which were on a volunteer basis.
“He’s always been a person that is very good at listening to all sides,” Sutton said. “He’s a person who could bring a lot of differing approaches together in a very calm and rational manner.”
For people who didn’t get their ideas implemented, Sutton said that Stanton always made sure that those individuals still felt like they were valued and heard.
Investment philosophy
The crux of Stanton’s financial philosophy hinges on smart investments. Incumbent Redel has made $4 million for the county, according to her campaign website. Stanton intends to increase that through investments with higher rates of return.
“If it was 4%, which is where my investment strategy would have it at, that would be $7.5 million that we should be making on investment income,” Stanton said. “And that’s without raising taxes.”
Redel said that some of Stanton’s securities, which can encompass bonds, were on five-year maturity timelines. In her first year in office, she said that only 6% of the investment portfolio was available to use, and everything else was still locked up in bonds and CDs.
“And if we had to sell those investments, the market had changed so much that if we had to sell them the first day I was in office, we would have taken a $15 million loss,” Redel said.
Redel updated the treasurer’s office investment policy for the first time in 11 years during her tenure, according to her website. In this update, she emphasizes keeping the investment portfolio liquid enough to meet operating requirements by making shorter-term investments that mature in time to meet anticipated cash demands and have active secondary or resale markets.
If Stanton is elected in November, he would be able to adjust the investment policy through its yearly review session with the Boone County Commission, according to the investment policy. In addition to this, and the standard duties of treasurer, Stanton’s campaign website highlights five priorities:
• Allocate $3 million to $4 million of investment income to the sheriff’s department.
• Raise 911 dispatch staff wages by $4 per hour.
• Spend $1 million of the Children’s Services Fund on collaborations with youth organizations that support mental health.
• Advocate at the Missouri State Capitol for additional funding.
• Release monthly, publicly available financial reports.
These priorities are based in part on what Stanton has observed in his various leadership positions in the county.
“He really listens to the community and kind of takes a pulse of the community: where it’s headed, what it needs,” Sutton said. “And working out the best way to get there for the growth that we’ve got going.”
