CANDIDATE PROFILE
Don Coover
U.S. House of Representatives
Running for:
PLATFORM
Any sane person can see how broken politics is these days. When something is broken, something has to be done to fix it. Don has always been one of the guys who would do the jobs that had to get done but no one else wanted to do.
Don believes that everyone wants to work hard and provide for their families. But he talks to folks everyday, and there’s a lot of despair. We all see it with rising grocery and housing costs and the closing of local hospitals. And politicians in Washington keep making things worse. They either don’t know what the hell they’re doing, or they’re too focused on their own reelection or what their party leaders want.
For Don, this isn’t about party or politics. We just need to get folks in the room who actually feel the impacts of the policies being made in Washington on communities like mine. We need folks willing to work together, who know how to spend within their means, and try to reward hard work for the folks at home.
So he is running for Congress because he wants to help move our country in the right direction for his granddaughter and for Kansans. He'd like the folks who know what it’s like to put in a hard day’s work to be making the decisions again in Washington. Until we do, he doesn’t think much of anything is going to change.
ABOUT
Don Coover was born and raised in rural Southeast Kansas and is the second oldest of seven children. Don’s family ran a small dairy, alfalfa, and soybean farm. His dad was a union truck driver and farmer and his mother a school teacher.Don’s parents taught him honesty, responsibility, respectfulness, and the value of hard work, and to always appreciate those traits in others.
Don attended West Point, and was one of the only cadets in his company from a rural community. He participated on the intercollegiate pistol team as a freshman, and he was a competitive intramural boxer.
After graduating, Don entered active duty in the U.S. Army as a military intelligence officer, ultimately serving for more than 10 years. He started as an infantry officer with the First Infantry Division and then entered flight training and became a pilot for the Army.
Don served in Korea with an aviation intelligence unit as a pilot and cryptographic operations officer, where he was responsible for intelligence gathering, analysis, and reporting. After his tour in Korea, he was assigned to Special Projects in the TRADOC Combined Arms Test Activity at Fort Hood, Texas.
After serving as a Captain in the U.S. Army, he pursued a career in Veterinary Medicine and graduated from Kansas State University’s School of Veterinary Medicine. Don re-entered the Army providing veterinary services for US Army K-9 unit dogs and inspecting food production facilities for Department of Defense contractors.
Don went on to develop a feed manufacturing business, with his brother, in southeast Kansas. Don now runs a successful beef cattle genetics company, which provides advanced reproductive technologies for cattle, sheep, and goats, along with a working ranch operation of several hundred head of cattle and a veterinary practice for local and regional livestock producers.