Even though he grew up in Missouri’s Bootheel, local businessman Sam Turner sees Boone County as his home.
He moved to Columbia in 2013 to study agricultural economics at the University of Missouri where he met his wife, Samantha. The two eventually moved to Memphis but came back to Boone County to raise their family, and Turner opened his business, Turner Ag Solutions.
“When you think about where you want to raise your family and where you want to start your life at, (it) is somewhere you think is home,” Turner said.
While living in Ashland, Turner noticed some problems. He grew concerned about the state of roads and bridges in southern Boone County after starting his business, in addition to the safety of county residents with understaffing in the Boone County Sheriff’s Department.
These concerns pushed him to run for the Boone County District I Commissioner as a Republican. He will face off against Democratic incumbent Justin Aldred during the Nov. 5 general election.
“You got to have somebody as county commissioner that’s willing to stick their neck out there and be like, ‘No, this is where that money needs to go,’” Turner said. “And it needs to go towards those running into burning buildings, it needs to go to those that are running toward the crime, not away from it.”
Funding the Sheriff’s Department and fixing roads and bridges is what ultimately pushed Turner to go into the political sphere, he said.
Turner announced his bid for the commissioner seat last November and picked up the Republican nomination after running unopposed in the August primary.
If voters successfully elect him, Turner would represent a combination of the southern and western half of Boone County, which includes some of Columbia, Ashland and Hartsburg.
While running a campaign with a young family and a business may be a challenge, Turner said he wanted to improve the county for his children so that they could raise their families here too. He has three children, including a kindergartner, a 3-year-old and a newborn, who is turning 3 weeks old on Monday.
While his family plays a major role in his life now, Turner’s grandfather was influential to him growing up. From a young age, his grandfather instilled the idea that “if you have the ability to help, you help,” Turner said.
Local business owner Connie Leipard, Turner’s campaign treasurer, met Turner and his wife through the Boone County Farm Bureau a few years ago. She ran against Presiding Commissioner Kip Kendrick two years ago as the Republican candidate.
Leipard thinks Turner can represent issues that “career politicians” don’t see while serving on the commission.
“He’s a business owner, he’s a father, he’s a Mizzou graduate. He’s in agriculture,” Leipard said. “He understands what it’s like to run his equipment up and down Boone County roads all the time and just all the different things that really need to be looked at.”
Safety and police funding
Turner’s first priority in office would be to find funding for first responders including the Sheriff’s Department. Turner said he would go through the budget and transfer money from some areas into staffing for the Sheriff’s Department. He would then work on funding projects, such as the Boone County Sheriff’s Regional Law Enforcement Training Center.
Turner also said that he hopes to lay the groundwork for building a new jail, emphasizing his priority for public safety. Violent crime in Boone County decreased in 2023, compared to 2022, KOMU reported earlier this year.
He would also make sure federal and state grants given to the county, like American Rescue Plan Act money, would go to projects proposed by first responders. The Southern Boone County Fire Protection District requested ARPA funding for updating its breathing apparatuses in 2023, but the commission granted the money to other projects.
“As a county commissioner, you have to make those hard decisions,” Turner said. “You have to figure out what’s important to the community. And I think everyone in this community could agree that we want safer streets.”
Turner said that he also plans to use his role as a Republican commissioner, if elected, to ask for state and federal funding for county necessities, like the Sheriff’s Department and first responders, from state lawmakers. The Missouri House and Senate have a GOP supermajority, and the Boone County Commission is currently made up of entirely Democrats.
When having conversations about bringing more funding into Boone County, Turner said that persuading the state legislature may be a little bit easier when talking with a Republican.
Turner said he sees himself working well with other commissioners, but he would not vote on anything that cut funding to the Sheriff’s Department.
“That’s a non-negotiable for me. I won’t vote for that,” Turner said.
Helping Boone County grow
Turner said that he also wants potential residents and new businesses to come to Boone County. He sees underfunding of infrastructure, like roads and bridges, and regulatory burdens on construction as roadblocks for that growth.
Leipard and Turner said that they both believe the county needs to put fewer rules and permit requirements on construction projects because those fees could be passed along to Boone County residents.
“I’ve seen it over and over, just in my industry, what it costs people to try to adhere to what the county is putting into their policies or programs or rules,” Leipard said. “And the small guy, the little guy, we have to pay for it.”
Turner also sees some infrastructure challenges, like unpaved roads, as barriers to businesses developing in the county.
“Boone County will only grow as fast as this infrastructure can grow,” Turner said. “And unless the county is really investing money and making sure that that can happen, then businesses start looking elsewhere if they can’t get the infrastructure in place they need.”
Turner hopes to elevate community concerns about safety and infrastructure throughout the campaign.
“If they’re looking for a candidate that’s going to try to clean up the streets, try to improve our infrastructure and really cut back on overregulation in Boone County, then I’m your candidate,” Turner said.
