Alissia Canady, Democratic nominee, on why she should be lieutenant governor

‘Culturally competent leadership is necessary in Missouri’ 

The St. Louis American: Why did you decide to run for lieutenant governor?

Alissia Canady: Well, the short answer is I was asked to run by the chair of the [Democratic] party and Nicole [Galloway]. And I wasn’t really motivated when I was approached because it wasn’t on my radar, but they were able to convince me that we needed someone from this side of the state on the ticket to balance it out and to help increase the representation to make it a more balanced ticket because all the other candidates are from the St. Louis area.

That wasn’t compelling enough for me alone, but once I learned more about the role of lieutenant governor … it definitely made it more appealing because I recognized that it really aligns with the platform I’ve been campaigning for the last decade, which is creating economic opportunities, improving education — dealing with the underlying issues that affect poverty and the root causes violent crime: education, economic opportunity, small businesses, effective advocacy for senior citizens because many of the stakeholders in these communities are seniors that are impacted by violence, the actual property owners. And so those are all functions of the lieutenant governor has responsibility of advising on and so it definitely helped me realize.

And then COVID. Because I was approached at the end of February and the filing deadline was in March, so I had about a month to decide if I was going to get in or not. And as I heard about the impact of COVID, I immediately begin to think about the disadvantaged communities that I’ve been fighting for and how they will be further impacted negatively by this and the importance it would be to have effective leadership that understood the challenges and was going to be intentional about making sure the relief was made available to these families.

The St. Louis American: What would you do differently regarding the COVID crisis? 

Alissia Canady: We need a mask mandate to be able to mitigate the community spread. You can’t just put a mask over one part of the state because people traverse about the state and this virus is airborne. So, you have to be able to protect everyone so that we can mitigate the community spread. This administration’s delay, or lack of action, has exacerbated the situation in areas like the Bootheel, where you have people who didn’t have health care coverage or lack of accessibility to quality health care centers that are being impacted. That’s unacceptable.

We’re seeing in senior citizen facilities where it’s being exacerbated and lives are being lost. So, I believe that just being clear and intentional that we have to follow the guidelines of doing what it takes to mitigate community spread because the longer we delay this, the longer it’s going to continue to impact our economics, it’s going to continue to impact education and children’s learning and socialization.

People are really stressed and overwhelmed with the length of time that we’ve been social distancing. And so, we’ve got to get a hold of this thing because it’s just it’s an undue burden for so many people because we have not taken the necessary steps. 

The St. Louis American: How has your previous professional experience prepared you for the role of lieutenant governor? 

Alissia Canady: All my positions have been with the focus of serving the public, and that is the role of lieutenant governor. You are the chief advocate for seniors and veterans, and you advocate on issues that impact people. This is the people’s position, and I believe it it’s important to have someone that represents working families to hold this position to make that connection. In my role as hearing officer strengthening families and then in my role as a prosecutor in Jackson County working with community stakeholders to address issues as it relates to the root causes of violent crime, which is education, people being able to earn a living wage and access to workforce development programs and living wage job opportunities, supporting small businesses to stabilize communities, supporting efforts to address substance abuse and mental health challenges that exacerbate and lead to violent crime, as well as dealing with housing, and that is an important role as lieutenant governor.

Housing is a huge challenge as it relates to Missourians across the state. And that’s an area of unmet need that we have to be more intentional about how we’re going to solve that. And affordable housing in Kansas City, the focus of affordable housing is on luxury apartments, not workforce housing. Most families need a three-bedroom home, at least somewhere under a thousand dollars a month, and it’s hard to find a decent place that meets their needs — a safe neighborhood with good schools.

With knowledge of the law and the legislative process, I’ve worked in these spaces prior to now. So being able to step into this world as lieutenant governor, as chief advocate, chief ombudsman as someone that is connecting on issues that matter to people most: education, housing, economic development and seniors. I’m definitely in alignment and in line to be able to operate effectively in that role with clear vision and expectation on where the opportunities are.

The St. Louis American: What are your plans as lieutenant governor to begin work on issues like livable wages, affordable housing and early childhood education?

Alissia Canady: Well, Vice President Biden’s plan calls for funding early childhood education across the board. We need to look at that at the state level. Kansas City tried to do that; it is on the ballot in St. Louis right now. Everybody is recognizing the need and the return on investment of providing early childhood education. And we have an opportunity to lead on that in the state of Missouri. I will look at putting together a plan instead of trying to piecemeal it across the state because all of our children deserve a quality education and particularly a good start.

As it relates to housing, on the [Missouri Housing Development Commission] we need to restore the LIHTC Act and then we have to have more clear policies and guidelines on how we’re going to do that, because we have to address the unmet need and not let wealthy developers that give to the candidates like in this current administration and previous ones to come in and get all of the tax benefits, which is why Governor Greitens took it away, because it became a developer slush fund. But that’s not what it was intended to do.

Well, when you have candidates like Gov. Parson and Mike Kehoe who appear to engage in pay to play, because the people who give them the most money are the ones that get the incentives, versus looking at the housing needs in the market and supporting the developers where they’re really wanting to meet those needs. We need a policy of being clear on what the priorities are so that we have a more transparent assessment that is objective on how we’re evaluating requests for those funds. We’ve got to set forth an objective analysis process to be able to award those to those developers who are willing to accomplish those needs.

The St. Louis American: What is your stance on the Defund the Police movement? 

Alissia Canady: You can go back in my record. I ran for City Council in 2014, the year that Michael Brown was shot and all of the unrest started in Ferguson. And at that time, before he even got shot, I recognized we were not going to arrest and prosecute our way out of these problems. I recognized what it was really going to take to address the issues around violent crime was stabilizing families, investing in education and creating economic opportunities outside of people’s current circumstances.

I believe the three common reasons why violent crime exists and persists are because of substance abuse, mental health or hopelessness. And I’ll add a fourth one, I’ll say family dysfunction, because domestic violence goes into that, too.

And so, we’ve got to be intentional about how we meet those needs. Those are not necessarily things the police are designed to address. So, my approach has always been about prevention, intervention and enforcement. You have to have all of it – and community relationships. So, I don’t believe that you have to take from one to fund the others because you have a big budget. And so, I don’t think it’s reasonable to take only from the police budget to do the things you need to do to stabilize communities. I think you need to look at the public works budget, you need to look at the housing budget, you need to look across the board and figure out what are we going to prioritize.

Are we going to prioritize safe and stable neighborhoods? Or are we going to prioritize luxury real estate development? So, I think that this is a broader conversation that needs to be had to really get to the root of the problem. This is nothing new … the political will has just never been there to fully fund these initiatives.

The St. Louis American: Why should Black voters vote for you instead of Lieutenant Governor Kehoe?

Alissia Canady: I’m the most qualified candidate because I provide a unique perspective. I grew up in a disadvantaged community with a public school and worked my way [up], you know, became a first-generation college graduate, went on to law school and made a commitment to come back and serve my community to work on improving the outcomes so that I was not the exception. That other children like myself will see that there is hope and be inspired to pursue their dreams. And I’m thankful to have had the privilege and opportunity to do that in a number of ways and create opportunities for our young people.

I believe that the people closest to the problem are in the best position to solve it. I believe that culturally competent leadership is necessary in Missouri. We are dealing with a pandemic that has disproportionately affected Black and Brown communities — health and financially. And then you add to that the civil rights issues we’re dealing with right now as far as the relationship between police and police brutality and systemic racism and all these challenges. Missouri needs culturally competent leadership to help us navigate through these crises.

There are those who are always left out of the conversation, and I’m going to always be here for them. I have a record of speaking out for my constituents as a councilperson, even when it wasn’t politically advantageous. I stood up for my constituents against wealthy developers, I stood up against political interests, I even stood up against self-serving Black leadership that wanted to work against the Black community. So, I’ve demonstrated my commitment to operate with political integrity and courage to make sure I’m creating space for disadvantaged communities.