That's 36!

My Republican Congressman isn't running

Congressman Sam Graves, the most invisible incumbent Missouri has had, just announced his retirement. Not to his constituents, but to the Wall Street Journal.

Fitting.

Sam has been my Congressman since I moved to Missouri. He has represented the 6th District since 2001. I’ve seen him one time in all of those years, and it was an accident on his part. He didn’t actually mean to be around his constituents.

The story of Sam’s retirement was whispered weeks ago, but he stayed silent. His office would not return the calls or emails of Missouri reporters (or me) asking about his retirement. I broke the news of his retirement to hundreds of cheering folks in Hannibal last weekend. My statement was reported throughout the state.

Still, Sam never responded.

We should have expected silence. He is too good for the rest of us, and if you doubt that, just ask him. I once asked him to hold a town hall because his constituents hadn’t heard from him since 2012, and he told me, “I don’t do those anymore.”

I think Sam knows what the November election has in store for Republicans.

He is the current Transportation Committee Chairman, and he will not only lose that Chair, but he will likely find himself in the minority party and spend his days defending an unconstitutional war and the crimes of the accused pedophile, adjudicated rapist in the White House. Sam wants no part of that.

Bye, Sam. Can’t say I’ll miss you.

Missouri’s 6th District is very rural — so rural that the district includes an entire third of the state. From east to west, the entire top of the state is in the 6th District. We have about 39 people per square mile in the district.

It’s farm country. Ag country. Country country.

Sam has been in Congress for 13 terms, and in that time, our district has grown more Republican-leaning while our roads and hospitals and schools crumble under Republican governance.

He has been one of the most evasive lawmakers in Missouri, and he was elected by the widest margins for 13 terms. Sam has been a do-nothing for decades and he has been rewarded with his seat every single cycle. In fact, the longer he stayed in office doing nothing for his constituents, the better his margins grew.

It is a phenomenon that would baffle most, except when you consider he is a “farmer” and others see themselves reflected in his occupation. The fact is that Sam’s family has been farming for generations, and Sam has obliged in coming back to his hometown at least once a year at harvest time to get a photo op on a piece of million-dollar farm equipment. He makes videos from the cab of his combine and uploads them to Facebook, where he has blocked the comments of constituents for over a decade.

He then drives to his nearly private airfield to fly off in his private plane to a fundraising event in Texas or Colorado. 76% of the cash that kept Sam in office for so long was raised out-of-state.

He voted against funding roads in the 6th. Against funding schools in the 6th. Against military members and veterans in the 6th. Against women in the 6th. Against people of color in the 6th.

And no matter what, Sam kept winning the 6th. Sam has won every single time he has placed his name on the ballot, which is more than I can say…

Why does he keep winning if he’s not actually doing the work of helping his community?

Quite frankly, not many people know he’s not working. He shows up to cut ribbons on the new highways that he voted against funding. He is paraded around new hospital wings in local communities after cutting funding for Medicaid and tax credits for the ACA. His name and image show up in local papers across the state, smiling for the camera for projects he voted to gut.

Sam is protected by a monopoly of conservative news coverage. He can do no wrong with newspapers from St. Joe to the other side of the state, and he is a frequent guest on AM radio in the district. Fun fact, did you know older tractors and equipment only came with AM radio capability, meaning farmers were listening to these stations exclusively for hours a day?

That’s how Rush Limbaugh happened and how politicians like Sam keep happening.

The news outlets that aren’t biased are so starved for resources and reporters that it’s hard to place the blame on their shoulders. Sam and his team know what they are doing by showing up to projects he voted against. That’s why they kept doing it.

Sam is infamous in progressive circles for an incident in which he loaded a Biden-era bipartisan spending bill up with money for projects for the 6th and then voted against the bill.

From the Kansas City Star:

Graves requested roughly $30 million of earmarked spending for his district, which stretches across northern Missouri. About $20 million of it was approved and included in the bill.

After loading the bill with earmarks for his constituents, Graves “adamantly opposed the legislation” and led the opposition to it on the House floor as the top Republican on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. He voted against the earmarks he included in the bill.

What the hell?

The bad news is that the information wasn’t widely reported in our district. And I assume it is already forgotten because the projects were funded…by Congressional Democrats.

Sam Graves has been in office so long at this point, that many don’t remember a time when he wasn’t on their ballot. He is familiar. He feels safe. He feels like the status quo. But things are getting tougher for my neighbors. Prices are through the roof for every last thing.

Unfortunately, the Epstein Files won’t change many minds, but $5.00 diesel will.

And I think that’s why Sam has finally decided to retire. I think he knows what November will yield and any smart farmer knows when it’s time to rotate crops. To plant in another field.

The upcoming November election is shaping up to be a 2018-style midterm for the Republicans. A rebuke. And so far, 36 House Republicans understand their fate and are walking away…Sam is the latest.

Sam Graves may have been familiar to many in Missouri’s 6th District, but familiarity does not equate effectiveness. Sam’s unwillingness to engage with constituents for well over a decade and his repeated votes against funding services for the 6th District show a pattern of neglect and arrogance.

He could not have cared less for his constituents or his legacy, and he will likely go right into the “private sector.” I imagine the billionaires at the Missouri-based Herzog Foundation will come calling, and that is a call Sam has never refused.

If you aren’t familiar with the foundation, this will get you caught up.

It’s crucial for my neighbors to hold our future Congressperson accountable. It’s time to break the cycle of complacency and apathy to elect someone who will advocate for the interests of all the residents of the 6th District, not just those of wealthy donors.

I hope we can break the cycle of electing a Republican just because he has an R behind his name. I hope my neighbors will connect the dots between their congressman and his votes.

I hope the rebuke Sam is expecting shows up. I hope the House flips and the hearings and impeachments and arrests and convictions begin.

It can’t come fast enough.

~Jess

P.S. I will provide a list of Democratic candidates for the 6th as soon as filing ends on Tuesday.