Issues
Matthew Overcast ran for office because rural Missouri deserves a representative who understands our way of life, listens to the people who live here, and is willing to fight for practical solutions in Jefferson City.
As a veteran, attorney, small business owner, father of five, and lifelong Ozarks conservative, Matthew’s priorities are rooted in service, accountability, faith, family, personal responsibility, and the belief that government should work for the people, not the other way around.
Since taking office as State Representative for Missouri’s 155th District, Matthew has sponsored and supported legislation focused on rural health care access, public safety, veterans, property tax relief, educational opportunity, government accountability, agriculture, small businesses, and the protection of Missourians' constitutional rights.
Protecting Rural Missouri Values
District 155 is made up of hard-working people who value faith, family, freedom, personal responsibility, and helping your neighbor. Matthew believes Jefferson City needs more voices from rural Missouri who understand our communities, our schools, our farms, our small businesses, and the challenges families face every day. Matthew will continue fighting to protect the values that make the Ozarks strong, including the right to keep and bear arms, the sanctity of life, private property rights, parental rights, religious liberty, and Missourians’ freedom to live, work, worship, and raise their families without unnecessary government interference.
Expanding Rural Health Care Access
Rural Missourians should not have to drive hours, wait months, or go without care because state law protects outdated systems instead of patients.
Matthew has made rural health care access one of his top legislative priorities. Since taking office, he has sponsored and supported legislation to remove unnecessary barriers that keep trained health care professionals from serving patients, especially in medically underserved rural communities.
That work includes modernizing Missouri’s laws for advanced practice registered nurses by removing outdated geographic restrictions, creating a responsible transition-to-practice pathway, and allowing experienced providers to better serve patients in communities where doctors are already scarce. Matthew has also worked to strengthen and modernize Missouri’s assistant physician laws so that qualified medical school graduates can help meet real health care needs rather than being sidelined by bureaucracy.
Matthew has also filed legislation to repeal Missouri’s Certificate of Need laws, which can block new facilities, services, equipment, and investment from reaching rural communities. He believes rural Missouri should be allowed to compete for clinics, providers, treatment options, and health care infrastructure without having to ask permission from government boards or entrenched interests that benefit from the status quo.
His health care agenda also includes expanding telemedicine, improving access to hearing aids and cochlear implants through MO HealthNet, expanding access to epinephrine delivery devices in schools, child care facilities, nursing homes, and emergency response settings, and creating new pathways for physician training through state-accredited residency programs.
Matthew has also worked on legislation addressing alpha-gal syndrome and other public health challenges affecting rural Missourians, Alzheimer’s planning, and access to promising alternative therapies and treatments for serious conditions.
The goal is simple: remove red tape, grow the health care workforce, protect patient choice, support rural providers, and make it easier for families in Douglas, Ozark, southern Stone, and Taney Counties to get care close to home.
Fighting for Alpha-Gal Awareness and Public Health Transparency
Alpha-gal syndrome is changing lives across Missouri, especially in rural communities where tick exposure is a daily reality for farmers, hunters, children, outdoor workers, and families who live close to the land.
Matthew has led efforts to improve Missouri’s understanding of alpha-gal syndrome by sponsoring legislation to strengthen disease surveillance, improve data collection, and help public health officials, researchers, and lawmakers better understand the scope of the problem.
For Matthew, this issue is personal. Families across Missouri are struggling with delayed diagnoses, limited awareness, food and medication concerns, and a lack of reliable information. Matthew will continue fighting for better awareness, better data, and better support for Missourians living with alpha-gal syndrome and other tick-borne illnesses.
Supporting Veterans and Military Families
As a United States Air Force Veteran, Matthew understands that service does not end when the uniform comes off. Missouri must do more than thank Veterans with words — we must back that gratitude with action.
Matthew has sponsored legislation to provide property tax relief for former prisoners of war, Purple Heart recipients, and Veterans with total service-connected disabilities. He believes Veterans who have sacrificed for this country should not be taxed out of their homes or punished for living on fixed incomes after a lifetime of service.
Matthew has also worked on legislation aimed at confronting the Veteran mental health crisis, including treatment-resistant PTSD, traumatic brain injury, depression, addiction, and suicide. Too many Veterans have tried the standard treatments, followed the rules, and still find themselves suffering without real relief. Matthew believes Missouri should be willing to carefully study and responsibly pursue emerging, medically supervised alternative treatment options for Veterans who have exhausted conventional care.
This is not about politics or ideology. It is about refusing to abandon the men and women who carried the burdens of war and service. Matthew supports a cautious, clinical, Veteran-focused approach that protects patients, respects medical oversight, and gives hope to those who have run out of options.
Matthew will continue supporting policies that honor Veterans, strengthen military families, improve access to care, expand mental health treatment options, and ensure Missouri remains a state that respects and defends those who served.
Public Safety, Victims, and the Rule of Law
Matthew believes safe communities require strong law enforcement, a fair court system, and laws that protect victims while respecting due process.
As an attorney, former probation officer, and legislator, Matthew brings practical legal experience to public safety policy. He has sponsored legislation addressing public access to arrest warrant records, civil justice reforms, courthouse infrastructure, and protections within Missouri’s legal system.
Matthew supports law enforcement, prosecutors, courts, and first responders while also working to ensure that Missouri’s laws are clear, constitutional, and fairly applied.
Reining In Bureaucracy and Restoring Accountability
Too often, unelected bureaucrats make decisions that affect Missouri families, businesses, schools, and local communities without meaningful accountability.
Matthew has sponsored legislation to strengthen oversight of state agencies, including reforms that give the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules greater authority to review agency rules, guidance documents, directives, manuals, and policies affecting Missourians.
Matthew believes agencies should not be allowed to govern through hidden guidance, informal rules, or bureaucratic overreach. If a policy affects the public, the public deserves transparency, accountability, and a Legislature willing to push back.
Property Tax Relief and Responsible Government
Rising property taxes are putting pressure on families, seniors, farmers, veterans, and working Missourians. Matthew believes people should not be taxed out of the homes, farms, and communities they have spent their lives building.
Matthew supports meaningful property tax reform, greater transparency in assessments, and policies that protect taxpayers from runaway government growth. He has served on committees focused on property tax reform and will continue working to make Missouri’s tax system more predictable, fair, and accountable.
Strengthening Education and Expanding Opportunity
Matthew believes every child deserves access to a quality education that fits their needs, whether that is a strong local public school, career and technical education, specialized services, virtual learning, homeschooling, private education, adult high school, or another path that helps that student succeed.
As the husband of a teacher, a father of five, an attorney with experience in education law, and a member of the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee, Matthew understands that education policy must be practical, student-centered, respectful of parents, and grounded in the realities facing local schools.
Matthew has supported legislation to protect parental rights, strengthen homeschool protections, require meaningful parental consent in the IEP process, and ensure families remain central in decisions affecting their children’s education. He believes parents are not obstacles to education; they are the first and most important advocates for their children.
Matthew has also sponsored legislation to remove unnecessary barriers for students with lifelong or static disabilities as they move from K-12 education into college, graduate school, professional licensing, and the workforce. Students with dyslexia, ADHD, autism, hearing loss, and other long-term disabilities should not be forced to repeatedly prove conditions that do not simply disappear.
His education record also includes support for expanding opportunity through adult high school access, strengthening classroom focus, improving teacher and substitute certification pathways, protecting students from discrimination, supporting practical school nutrition efforts, and making sure lawful education options are not blocked by unnecessary government barriers.
Matthew believes Missouri should support great teachers, respect local communities, empower parents, protect students with disabilities, and give every child a real opportunity to succeed.
Defending Farmers, Small Businesses, and the Rural Economy
Rural Missouri’s economy is built by farmers, small business owners, tradesmen, entrepreneurs, producers, and working families, not bureaucrats.
Matthew has sponsored legislation to strengthen Missouri agriculture, protect local producers, and make sure Missouri tax dollars support Missouri-grown agricultural products whenever possible. He believes state government should look first to the farmers, ranchers, and producers who feed our families and keep rural communities alive.
Matthew also understands that issues affecting farmers’ health directly affect their families, farms, and bottom line. That is why he has worked to bring attention to rural health challenges like alpha-gal syndrome, which can disrupt a farmer’s ability to work, eat, manage livestock, and maintain the way of life rural Missouri depends on.
Matthew has also worked on legislation to create a fair, safe, and workable regulatory framework for Missouri’s hemp farmers and small businesses. His approach is simple: pass common-sense rules that protect children, require accountability, support legitimate Missouri businesses, and prevent powerful special interests from using government to crush competition. Missouri farmers and entrepreneurs deserve a fair shot to compete in emerging agricultural markets.
Matthew has also supported legislation that protects landowners, reduces unnecessary burdens on employers, reforms taxes to encourage investment, and stands up for private property rights against government overreach. Matthew’s priority is simple: stand with Missouri farmers, protect rural businesses, defend private property, and keep government from standing in the way of the people who work, build, grow, and produce.
Matthew will continue fighting for policies that reward work, protect rural producers, defend small businesses, encourage innovation, and keep the rural economy strong for the next generation
Protecting Private Property and Constitutional Rights
Private property is one of the foundations of freedom. Matthew believes the government should respect the rights of landowners, farmers, hunters, and rural families.
Matthew has sponsored legislation and constitutional reforms aimed at protecting private property rights and ensuring that state agencies operate within proper constitutional limits. He supports conservation and responsible stewardship, but he also believes that enforcement authority must be accountable and respectful of Missouri citizens' rights.
A Conservative Fighter for District 155
Matthew Overcast is not in Jefferson City to go along to get along. He is there to work, listen, learn, and fight for the people of Douglas, Ozark, southern Stone, and Taney Counties.
His priorities are grounded in common sense: protect freedom, serve families, defend rural Missouri, support veterans, expand opportunity, improve access to care, rein in government, and make sure the people of District 155 have a strong voice at the Capitol.
Matthew will continue standing for the values that built the Ozarks: faith, family, hard work, service, accountability, and freedom.