A lifelong Republican, Don Coover became a Democrat on Jan. 6, 2021. The day mobs attacked the U.S. Capitol in an effort to overturn the 2020 election results.
“I didn’t leave the Republican Party. It left me,” he said.
Coover was in town recently to pitch his campaign for 2nd District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives currently held by Republican Derek Schmidt.
As a newcomer to politics, Coover admits his campaign is at a decided disadvantage to Schmidt, who’s held public office for the past 25 years and amassed a campaign chest in excess of $260,000, according to campaign records.
He also admits he’s impressed by Schmidt’s campaign style. “He’s smooth,” Coover said, alluding to his own lack of sophistication.
Coover lives in rural Galesburg in Neosho County. A veterinarian, he owns SEK Genetics, which focuses on cattle breeding.
As such, his “clients” dictate his attire: Sturdy boots, jeans and flannel shirts.
A West Point graduate, Coover served in the U.S. Army as a pilot from 1973 to 1980 and again from 1986 to 1988 as an Army veterinarian.
In his first stint, Coover flew intelligence reconnaissance missions for the Department of Defense.
Coover said his years with the military have led to his belief that “there’s a crisis of confidence in Congress. They’re not providing the checks and balances they’ve been granted. I’m alarmed at the direction some of their decisions are taking us.”
The U.S. shootings of alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean are of particular concern.
“You’ve got people being blown up without giving them due process. They say they’re drug runners, but we don’t know that for sure. And in the same breath, President Trump pardons the former president of Honduras who was sentenced to 45 years in prison for running drugs.”
On Dec. 1, President Donald Trump pardoned Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former president of Honduras.
Hernández had been sentenced to 45 years in prison in June 2024 after a federal jury convicted him of conspiring to import more than 400 tons of cocaine into the United States and related firearms offenses.
“That’s a pretty difficult square to circle,” Coover said of Trump’s publicized efforts to crack down on drugs.
He’s even more disgusted with Congress’s response to the attacks on Venezuelans.
