Power Profile: Representative Brad Banderman

Representative Brad Banderman represents the 119th District in the Missouri House of Representatives.

Representative Brad Banderman, R-St. Clair, has been in public service for his entire career, though in two very different ways: as a youth pastor and a state representative. As he was finishing his bachelor’s degree in religion with an emphasis in youth education from Missouri Baptist College in 1998, his former youth pastor reached out to ask if Banderman would work with him at Bethel Baptist Church in Lonedell, Missouri. He accepted the job and has now served the church for nearly 26 years.

Banderman saw politics as a natural extension of his interest in serving his community but resisted running for a local office. He saw the possibility that decisions he made locally could impact whether someone came to the church where he serves as a pastor. Instead, when Nate Tate, then representative of the 119th district, decided to run for the Missouri Senate in 2022, Banderman ran to fill the seat and won a three-way race with more than 50% of the vote.

Coming into his role as a representative, he had low expectations for how business would be conducted at the Capitol, but he was pleasantly surprised. “It’s certainly been much more positive than I can ever have imagined,” he said. “The vast majority of representatives I serve with everyday are here for the right reasons, and that has been really encouraging to me as a person who has never been in politics before.”

He was also surprised at the overwhelming feeling that comes with getting elected. “I can’t walk into the chamber without thinking about what a great country we live in,” he said. “My area has placed their trust in me. To sit in our seat and represent them is both a great honor and a tremendous responsibility. This has been the experience of a lifetime for me, and I am thoroughly enjoying the process and being able to help a lot of people.”

Banderman wanted to shorten the learning curve when he was elected and knew he would need to ask a lot of questions and get involved, which led to his appointment to three standing committees.

He was interested in the Utilities Committee because it affects everyone in his district and throughout the state. Once appointed, Banderman found it to be the most significant learning curve of any of the committees he serves on. “Electricity is easy to use, and the rest of the process is incredibly complicated,” he said. “As I got into utilities, it was more complicated than I ever could have imagined. Not just the production of it, but the delivery of it and the end user.”

However, he sees that diversity of power production and delivery as a benefit. “The diversity of the production and transmission in the state has been encouraging to me,” he said. “I brought in fears that maybe we were in bad shape. I don’t feel that way anymore. I feel like we’re in a great position and that’s come directly from learning from the committee and being onsite in several production facilities.”

He is particularly excited about the potential for natural gas-powered plants in Missouri. “Natural gas is definitely important with some of the retirements that we’ve had with coal-fired power plants in the last couple of years,” he said. “That has brought some comfort to me that we have new production coming online that can be adjusted by demand.”

He notes that some other power generation options are either all on or off and can’t be ramped up as demand fluctuates. He sees the positives in those steady delivery systems but thinks other states have gotten in trouble by retiring systems that allowed them to increase production per peak.

Banderman said Missourians enjoy reliable electricity for a reasonable rate and doesn’t want to see that change. “We have a long tradition in the state of Missouri in keeping our utilities reliable and keeping the prices down,” he said. “I want to make sure it stays reliable and make sure that we’re producing enough that we’re encouraging manufacturing in our state. We take for granted that we can walk over and turn a light switch on, and that needs to continue, even in new models that produce some of our energy without carbon.”