Why would anyone pay attention to red state politics? I mean, we are just wallowing in our own shit around here right? We get what we vote for. We deserve the representation—or lack thereof—because we vote against our own self-interest, right?
Not exactly, friends. One of the impetuses for my State House run was that this seat often ran uncontested, years of only a Republican running unopposed. In 2020 and in 2016, there was no Democratic nominee. Districts in other parts of my state go decades without a Dem in several races. My House and Senate district currently have no one interested in filing for office and the deadline is a little over 90 days away.
Years of disinvestment by Democrats have left huge swaths of uncontested seats that go year after year to Republicans who only grow more extreme.
Missouri, like so many other states, has spent decades under a GOP supermajority. I hear my neighbors claim to vote for “limited government” when they vote, and though my comment goes unheard, I need to say it anyway...
The limited government of the right pertains only to corporations who are free to pilfer and pollute. Regular folks are the outgroup who the laws bind, but do not protect. Limited government does not apply to citizens who are regulated on everything from our uteruses to our bedrooms.
“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.” ~Frank Wilhoit
What does that look like in the every day life of a person in a bleeding state? What are the metrics in Missouri? We have one of the lowest life-expectancy rates in the country. We have a high maternal mortality rate. We have health care and childcare deserts. We have a high gun violence rate. We are ranked dead last for starting teacher pay and 49th for school funding.
Our lawmakers pass voucher schemes to skim taxpayer money and send it to private schools. They nullify federal gun laws and allow children to open carry rifles down Missouri streets. They ban trans children from life-saving medicine. They ban women from life-saving abortion care.
Reader, I know you are sympathetic, but you may wonder why you should care? Especially if you feel safe in your Democratic state.
You should care because these laws, this red state legislation, bleeds into other states. As long as there are billionaires using these states as playgrounds to enact terrible policies, no one is safe. As long as corporations can use the courts in these states to run terrible lawsuits up to the Supreme Court, none of us can breath a sigh of relief. We are all in the same boat, though some may feel safer in first-class, we will all go under when it sinks.
As long as women like Brittany Watts of Ohio can be charged with “Abuse of a Corpse” for flushing the toilet after a miscarriage, or Kate Cox is forced to leave Texas to have an abortion to save herself and lose her doomed fetus on her own terms, it can happen to any of us.
As long as public schools can be defunded to closure, or forced to run 4-day school weeks, and voucher schemes are enacted to line the pockets of private schools and churches in these states, legislators can do this in any state.
As long as children can open carry, and guns can be proliferated throughout a state—as long as you can buy a gun without a background check—as long as a domestic violence abuser can keep his guns, legislators can do this in any state.
I don’t live in a red state. I live in a bleeding state, and if the far-right can do what they’ve done to Missouri, they can do it in every state. That’s the plan.
~Jess
Well said Jess. I don't think many people realize that these races are going uncontested. I myself, did not realize this until fairly recently. I'm going to see if I can repost this to a women's FB group I belong to- SWEEP by Red, Wine, & Blue, particularly the MO chapter, to see if there are any women there that would be able to run. (It's a group dedicated to getting people to vote and to vote BLUE.)