Access Denied

I am not an investigative journalist. I am a storyteller, but the story I am about to tell you has me feeling a little like Erin Brockovich. It keeps getting bigger. I keep taking notes. I keep hearing from others who are experiencing the same thing.

Something stinks in Missouri, and the stench is spreading fast — like a feed lot in July.

Republican Congressional Representatives are up to something nasty, and I think it is coordinated.

On January 30th, a few local Kansas City groups decided to go to one of our Congressman’s regional offices. He has five offices, and his constituents pay the rent for each.

My Congressman is Sam Graves. He has been in office for 24 years. He wins by a landslide every two years. He hasn’t held a town hall since 2012, and last fall, when I asked him to his face when he would hold a town hall, he told me, “I don’t do those.”

Many folks in his district have grievances with his policies and his fealty to the regime, so several of us went to his Kansas City office to voice our concerns to his staffers. The event was publicized and drew over 200 people.

When I arrived at the building that houses Sam’s office, I noticed a “No Trespassing” sign. I thought it was odd. The building is large, but it houses constituent offices for both Sam Graves and Senator Eric Schmitt.

Sam Graves’s KC Office, North Ambassador Drive, Kansas City, Missouri. 1/30/26.

As I pulled into the parking lot, I found the visitor’s parking space and parked. As I opened my back door to grab my protest sign, a woman in an unmarked police car told me I couldn’t park in the visitor’s lot, while a man in the passenger seat of the car filmed me with his phone.

I told her to take it up with someone else. I had every right to park in that spot.

She told me the building’s owner didn’t want us there. I told her I parked in the correct spot to speak with my Congressman in the office I paid for.

She told me to move my car, or I would be towed, because I was on private property.

I told her to do whatever she needed to do, but they’d have to tow dozens of vehicles. I grabbed my sign and walked toward the crowd gathering on the sidewalk.

I walked to the building to find Sam’s constituent office, and a man inside the building opened the door for me. I smiled at his courtesy, and I was about to pass through the open door when he stepped in front of me.

I looked up at his quick movement, and he asked me if he could help me.

I told him I was going in to speak to my Congressman’s staff. He told me there were no appointments that day. I stated I didn’t need an appointment…I had a sticky note to deliver. He said I couldn’t come in, and he would deliver anything I had to Sam’s staff.

And that was it. I was met by a guard at my Congressman’s door and not allowed in the building. I was denied my First Amendment right to petition my government for a redress of grievances.

I thought this was where the story would end, but what happened to me and others in Kansas City that day is happening all over the state. Missouri constituents are being met with hostility and locked doors and threats of citations and even arrest for showing up at our own Representative’s offices.

I read an article several months ago about a Ballwin, Missouri man who was arrested for protesting at Ann Wagner’s office. Ann is the Representative from Missouri’s 2nd District. She, like my congressman, also refuses to hold town halls and chooses to house her constituent office on private property.

From the St. Louis Post Dispatch:

Bill Brown launched a one-man protest last week against U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner, saying he was guided by principles. But because those principles steered Brown onto private property — he sat outside Wagner's office in a west St. Louis County business park — he was arrested Monday for trespassing.
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"It was a very humiliating experience," said Brown, 74, a former teacher at Eureka High School.

Ann’s staff stated that they did not call the police to arrest Mr. Brown. The report states that the private property owners called the police to have Brown removed. Just like the owners of the building my Congressman rents.

The more stories I researched, the more common I found this behavior. Constituents are being forcefully removed from Congressional offices.

A friend told me a man from Springfield was arrested for protesting Senator Eric Schmitt’s Springfield office late last year. I started digging.

In a Facebook post from 2025, Jeffrey Tenney stated he was arrested, and his car was towed from the private property where Schmitt leases his Springfield constituent office. Tenney said the property owner called the police after he stood outside of Schmitt’s office door with a sign.

Are you sensing a pattern?

Mr. Tenney was given a year of probation for violating the Springfield code regarding the right-of-way in crosswalks.

It doesn’t stop there…

While writing this essay, I saw a video of a group of constituents from the Springfield area who organized a lobbying day this week. The intent was to deliver letters they had written to their Congressman, Eric Burlison. He represents the 7th District, and like so many others, refuses to hold town halls or meet with his constituents.

The video showed a Springfield Police Officer interacting with several women. The officer told the women they could not step onto the private property, even though their Congressman’s constituent office is located there.

Dominique Moore and April Hicks, both Springfield organizers, helped arrange the event. They stated it was not organized as a protest, but as a way for constituents to voice their concerns.

Organizers intended to deliver letters with other citizens, but a staffer for Congressman Burlison met them at the door and closed it behind them. The staffer offered to take their names and then stepped back into the office and locked the door.

Within an hour, several Springfield PD squad cars arrived to remove constituents from the property. By this point, it had turned into a full-blown protest with around 20 people gathered on the sidewalk in front of Eric Burlison’s office.

The Springfield Police Department did not issue any citations.

Missouri Army National Guard Veteran, Sarah Wickins, also planned to speak to Burlison’s staff on Monday. She knocked on the Congressman’s door, and a staffer stated, “There is no one here to speak with you,” so Sarah joined the crowd gathered on the sidewalk.

Sarah brought a megaphone and played music through the speaker while standing on the sidewalk.

She said she noticed a blacked-out truck sitting in the same parking lot protestors were asked to vacate. Several minutes later, a deputy arrived, and a man in a cowboy hat stepped out of the blacked-out truck. Wickins stated it was the Greene County Sheriff.

The Sheriff stood by while Sarah Wickins was issued a citation for disturbing the peace with her megaphone. She has a court date in May.

Something is going on, and it has everything to do with a coordinated attack on the First Amendment rights of everyday Missourians hoping to speak with their Representatives. This simple essay about a one-off experience with my Congressman ballooned into a shared experience across the state with several of our Congresspeople.

It is reprehensible that our Representatives are being shielded by private property laws. These Reps can shirk their duties to their constituents by using tax dollars to pay for offices we can’t access. They can evade their constituents. They can have us cited or even arrested.

It’s purposeful.

Remember when my Congressman told me he doesn’t do town halls? He meant it. He is adamant. No contact with constituents and no questions answered and no relief delivered. He is a man beholden to his donors, not his voters.

And this applies to Ann Wagner and Eric Schmitt and Eric Burlison. They don’t care.

Petitioning our government is our First Amendment right. A right that exists even under this regime. Even under a Missouri GOP supermajority.

Someday, I hope the rest of Missouri will wake up to this fact.

These Representatives don’t care about you. Stop voting for them.

~Jess