For fifth-term Rep. Vicky Hartzler of Missouri, a loan she and her husband received from the Payroll Protection Program for their small businesses has become a small issue in her campaign for re-election. She says “American workers deserve the certainty of their job,” and that’s why she and her husband received the money.
Hartzler confirmed the loan in late April in a news release headlined “Hartzler small business among 47,000 Missouri companies to utilize the Payroll Protection Program.” Hartzler was one of at least four U.S. representatives who have acknowledged “close ties to companies that have received loans from the program — businesses that are either run by their families or employ their spouse as a senior executive,” said Politico on Tuesday.
In Hartzler’s case, she and her husband, Lowell, jointly own a farm and farmland leased to others in Cass County, Missouri, roughly 40 miles south of Kansas City, and they own Heartland Tractor, a farm equipment dealership with outlets in Harrisonville, Nevada and Lamar, Missouri, and Iola, Kansas, said the Rolla Daily News. Hartzler represents west-central Missouri in the House.
Democrat Lindsey Simmons, who is running against Hartzler in the November 3 election, has said she ought to disclose the amount of the loan. An attorney, Simmons said it probably was “good business sense” to seek the loan.
Other lawmakers with ties to PPP loans were Reps. Roger Williams, Texas Republican, Susie Lee, Nevada Democrat, and Debbie Powell, Florida Democrat, said Politico.