12 People You Need to Know: Jeff Schrag

Q&A | May 20

Why You Need to Know Jeff: He’s the next mayor of the Queen City, looking to guide 170,000 residents with priorities like quality of place, economic vitality and public safety. He’s best known as the founder of Mother’s Brewing, but his usual pint has been replaced by a full-bodied mug of Springfield.
Position: Mayor, city of Springfield
Age: 58
Education: Bachelor’s in journalism and social science, Kansas State University
Career: Jeff moved to the Queen City in 1995 after purchasing The Daily Events, an outlet published continuously since 1881 and old enough to be assigned PO Box 1 in the 65801 ZIP code. Prior to that, he had owned small weekly newspapers in Buckner, Missouri, and Blooming Prairie, Minnesota. He embarked on a second career in restoring historic buildings, with various other commercial endeavors on the side, and in 2011 he founded Mother’s Brewing Co.

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Although he is slated to be sworn in as Springfield’s next mayor on April 21, Jeff Schrag is already officially someone worth knowing.

The newspaperman, real estate investor and brewer will be Springfield Business Journal’s first repeat guest in its 12 People You Need to Know monthly interview series, which is in its 18th year.

The businessperson’s latest adventure takes him into the world of politics.

“I come from a long line of farmers, and farmers are inherently entrepreneurial,” he says.

It wasn’t until college, while working on a journalism degree at Kansas State University, that Schrag understood how that legacy affected him. There, he not only wrote, but worked on production, sold advertising and worked with an elected editorial board.

“I wasn’t particularly good at anything, but I could do a little of everything,” he says.

Entrepreneurship led Schrag to Springfield in 1995 as the new owner of legal publication The Daily Events. He continues to work on the paper, while also operating commercial real estate properties and doing some work at Mother’s Brewing Co., which he founded in 2011 and where he remains minority owner after selling to Jeff and Lindsay Seifried in 2023.

Schrag says he will not be a full-time mayor, and he doesn’t believe the mayor position should be reserved for those people who are retired or who don’t have to work. The mayor is provided a monthly stipend of $200 and serves a four-year term, up from two due to a recent change in city charter.

“I would like to turn it into a much more manageable role,” he says. “There are lots better people than me that could be mayor of Springfield. It’s just the timing that was daunting to many people – and so maybe I have a role in opening it up.”

He noted, however, that changing the role to a paid position is not on his immediate list of priorities.

Springfield has a lot working for it, according to Schrag.

“I think we have a superior entrepreneurial spirit in Springfield, Missouri,” he says. “It feels like we do a good job of growing and cultivating our own.”

The city also has its weaknesses, he says.

“I want to make sure that Springfield, Missouri, is open for business,” he says. “Are we competitive? Because we’re constantly competing for where people live, where people start or expand businesses, where people travel.”

Schrag says his top priority is to secure a strong city manager. He is already participating in that search process, which is happening now after three finalists were announced earlier this month.

Schrag says he was moved to run for mayor after serving on the Citizens Committee on Community Investment, a group charged with determining whether and how to implement a replacement three-quarter-cent sales tax.

That work lit a spark in him, he says.

“You never know where the next great idea is going to come from,” he says. “That’s a really good point for me to remember.”