Nathan Willett visits Rock Port ice cream social, courts river farmers

Nathan Willett used an ice cream social at Rock Port City Hall to turn a small-town stop into a direct appeal to Atchison County voters worried about flood control, farm pressure and what federal policy could mean along the Missouri River.

More than 20 people attended the Monday, May 4, gathering hosted by Rock Port Mayor JR Chaney and Councilman Michael Graves. Willett, who is running in Missouri’s 6th Congressional District, told attendees about the work he has done on the Kansas City City Council and what he says he would do for Atchison County residents if elected to Congress.

The race has new stakes after longtime Republican Rep. Sam Graves announced on March 27, 2026, that he would retire at the end of the current Congress. Graves has held the 33-county district since 2001, and the seat stretches across north Missouri from the Missouri River to the Mississippi River, a span that includes river communities where flooding and levee maintenance remain constant concerns.

That geography matters in Atchison County, where the levee district maintains 54 miles of levee along the Missouri River. Flooding and levee setbacks have repeatedly shaped local conversations in a county that sits at the far northwest corner of Missouri and depends heavily on river conditions, farm access and the stability of land near the levees.

Willett pressed a message aimed squarely at those concerns, saying he wanted to fight for farmers along the river and oppose Environmental Protection Agency regulations and climate policies he views as burdens on rural Missouri. For voters in a county that measures risk in rising water, levee repairs and the cost of keeping farm ground productive, those promises will be judged against the daily realities of working the river corridor.

Willett also leaned on deep local ties. He is the grandson of James Hall and Jane LaHue Philip, both Rock Port High School graduates, and his family’s name is familiar in the area through former Rock Port mayor Blu LaHue. His connection to Graves goes back years, including an internship with Sam Graves in Washington in 2015.

Willett later built a statewide profile at the University of Missouri, where he was elected student body president in 2017 with more than 8,500 votes, the highest turnout in the university’s 183-year history. He graduated in 2018 with a degree in economics and began serving on the Kansas City City Council in 2023. Kansas City’s official website describes him as representing the Northland and focusing on constituent services, while his campaign identifies him as a high school math teacher, Northland councilman and seventh-generation Missourian.

He first filed for Missouri state Senate in 2025, then shifted into the congressional race in 2026 after Graves’ retirement opened the district. In Rock Port, he made his case where river politics are never abstract, and where the next representative will be judged on what changes for farms, levees and small towns along the Missouri.