CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Two men who are from and both represented Monongalia County in the state Senate at one point vie to hold the position of commissioner of the Department of Agriculture in the Nov. 3 General Election.
Voters will decide between incumbent Republican Kent Leonhardt, a former state senator representing District 2, or go with Bob Beach, a Democratic state senator from Monongalia County.
Leonhardt is a Fairview resident that holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Wildlife Management from University of Missouri, Masters in Business Management from Central Michigan University and Graduate of USMC Command and Staff College.
He said the voters, including farmers of the nearly 22,900 farms in the state, will vote for him because they want to see the momentum of the office and industry continue.
“You want to keep somebody in office that has started these programs and let this person finish it to the end. To change the person mid-stream you may end up losing all the progress you made,” he told MetroNews.
Leonhardt has touted the Fresh Food Act passed under his leadership that mandates state institutions to source five percent of their beef commodities from state farmers. Going into law July 1, 2019, it was part of the department’s effort to expand the use of local foods to all of the state’s schools and state-led institutions through the Farm to School program.
Being a veteran, Retired USMC Lt. Colonel, Leonhardt also told MetroNews he is proud of the VA Agro-therapy project in West Virginia for veterans and first-responders.
Leonhardt, who lives on a cattle, goat and sheep family farm on 380-acres, said that something that may resonate with the voters the most is the way the department has handled the COVID-19 pandemic. He credited his military background for his leadership skills.
“During this pandemic, we kept the agriculture businesses open with almost zero, very little incidents with COVID infections. It’s had very little impact,” he said.
VIEW: Kent Leonhardt’s campaign profile
Beach was raised on an 800-acre Angus cattle farm at Fort Martin and said he jumped into the race 18 months ago after meeting with farmers from Greenbrier, Mason and Kanawha counties.
“At the end of the evening, what you were hearing was there is a lack of communication between the farm and the Department of Ag. Also a lack of advocacy for the farmer. Those two things can be easily corrected if you have the right person in play,” he said.
Beach has been in the legislature for 20 years and has a political science degree from Fairmont State University. He has served on the committees around agriculture and rural development that has led bill passages including being a sponsor of the Cottage Food Law, SB 285.
The bill was signed by Gov. Jim Justice in 2019 and allowed for sales of homemade food items beyond farmers’ markets and community events.
VIEW: Bob Beach’s campaign profile
Leonhardt has called Beach a career politician touted his campaign has “a real farmer for West Virginia.”
“I love my job, I love helping people, I love watching agriculture grow,” Leonhardt said.
Leonhardt said programs and industries that have grown in the past three and a half years include hemp, honey, maple syrup, cattle, and food banks.
Leonhardt served two years in the state Senate before taking office in 2016 and now has continued to try to cultivate the hemp industry in the state. When the application period ended for the 2020 growing season of industrial hemp in Oct. 2019, the state received more than 400 applications.
The 2021 growing season application process ends on Oct. 31. According to the department’s figures, the state had 649.5 acres of hemp grown in 2019.
During his time in the legislature, Beach has pushed for the hemp industry by working on experimental plots. He said if elected he would like to put an education element into the hemp program and not just focus on the application process.
He said the hemp program needs to be stressed as a business and not a hobby and some results have been disappointing.
“A lot of focus has been on how many applications are being made. Well, that’s not what you want to judge anything on, you want to judge it on the output and how many plants are being generated,” Beach said.
Beach said he’d want more focus in the department on promoting agricultural products grown in the state. He has put together a 10-point plan for educational advances with K-12 schools and agriculture.
His campaign has been based around the term “ARC” standing for advocacy, resources and communication for the industry. The West Virginia Development says in 2019, the state’s farmers produced $800 million in a variety of products from produce to livestock.
Beach was last elected to the state Senate District 13 in 2018 and his term would end 2022 if not elected to the Ag post.
“That element that I have to bring to the table is as a native West Virginia, I can talk to talk and walk the walk when it comes to agriculture. I was raised in that environment, I stayed close to that environment all my life,” Beach said.
The early in-person voting period in West Virginia ends Oct. 31.