Mayor Karen Best served two terms in Branson but was defeated in April.

Her campaign announcement noted that Best briefly worked for the Trump Organization in the 1990s.

Former Branson Mayor Karen Best announced Tuesday morning that she's running for state representative for the 156th district, which covers Branson and surrounding areas.

The incumbent, Rep. Jeff Justus, is term-limited. He was first elected in 2012 and most recently won an uncontested race in 2017. Both Justus and Best are Republicans. Best served two terms as Branson mayor, has worked as a real estate agent for 13 years and spent 20 years as a school administrator and teacher. Best was defeated in Branson's April city election by Edd Akers.

In a Tuesday morning call with the News-Leader, Best said she's running "because I love the Ozarks."

She said, "I love every inch of territory that goes with this particular seat. It goes from Walnut Shade down to Ridgedale, and it's an opportunity to give back to the community that's given so much to me over the years."

If elected, Best said her priorities at the statehouse would center on public safety, infrastructure, economic development, education and financial sustainability.

She said she wants to advocate for tourism dollars to flow toward southern Missouri and for the Missouri Department of Revenue to ensure that monies due to local municipalities and school districts be sent in a timely manner — an issue that can have a "huge effect" on small-town fiscal matters.

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Best's campaign announcement, emailed to news organizations via a St. Louis-based consultant, noted that Best's biography includes a brief stint working for the Trump Organization and that she's on board with "working to advance President Trump’s 'Make America Great Again!' agenda here in Missouri."

Best explained that in 1990, while she was working for MGM Studios, she was asked to join Trump Card Productions because Trump was putting out a game show.

"Initially, I turned down the offer several times," she said, "until they made me an offer I couldn't refuse."

When President Trump visited Springfield in 2017, Best was among those greeting him at the airport.

"I made the statement, 'Who would have ever thought you'd be president and I'd be mayor?', after working for him so many years ago," she said.

The following year, Best visited the White House to participate in talks on local infrastructure, where she met Trump aide Kellyanne Conway. As it turned out, Best said Conway told her she had auditioned for the Trump game show back in the '90s.

Best acknowledged that serving as Branson mayor can add a bit of extra notoriety for someone seeking higher elected office because the tourism hub is well-known around the country, despite being a community of just 10,000 people. Best had an official trip to the White House; her predecessor, Raeanne Presley, was the subject of a cheery interview by a liberal New York Times columnist in 2008.

"I never looked at it as being in the limelight," Best told the News-Leader. "I always looked at it as being an avenue for opening doors that wouldn't normally be open to a town of 10,000, access to advocate for the citizens of Branson."

"Sometimes that's a plus, sometimes it's a negative."

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