No Seat Uncontested

Run Everywhere

The last thing I want to write about is the consistent and persistent abortion ban in Missouri. The reason I am sick of writing about it? Missourians voted to enshrine reproductive rights into the Missouri Constitution one year and five months ago.

I drove hours around the northern part of the state to collect signatures from rural people to put the abortion question on the ballot. I worked hours upon hours to ensure my part of the state was represented in the ballot initiative.

We needed 180K signatures to put abortion on the ballot. We turned in 380K signatures. The initiative passed in November of 2024. But that doesn’t matter to our elected representatives.

Abortion is legal in Missouri, but it is almost impossible to access.

I have lived under the boot of a GOP supermajority for 22 years, but I liken it to living under authoritarian rule. We have no balance in the state. One-party rule has led to misery for women and children and people of color and immigrants and the poor and the LGBT community and the religious minority.

Missouri Republicans fit the definition:

Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political status quo, and reductions in democracy, civil liberties, and the rule of law.

Anything goes in Missouri as long as the anything is proposed by a Republican. And I mean anything…

Knowing what you know about Missouri Republicans, you won’t be surprised when I tell you I opened my email this morning to an article published by the Missouri Independent titled, “Missouri Senator revives ‘personhood’ amendment criminalizing abortion.”

The article went on to state, “The proposal would treat embryos as people under the state constitution, exposing patients and providers to murder charges and eliminating rape and incest exceptions.”

Here we go again.

Missouri Senator Mike Moon’s amendment would create another total abortion ban and criminalize anyone involved in an abortion, including providers and the person ending their pregnancy.

Those found guilty of murder in Missouri can face the death penalty.

Mike Moon has a checkered legislative past, beginning with his advocacy for child marriage. Though Moon professes to “protect children,” he in no way means children forced into carrying a pregnancy or children forced into marriage.

In a bizarre and seemingly manic episode a few years ago, Moon beheaded and dismembered a chicken on Facebook Live to prove his “pro-life” stance. That was a confusing chapter in the Mike Moon drama, even for Missourians accustomed to crazy politicians and unhinged behavior.

Mike Moon once told a story of two Missouri children during testimony at the Capitol. The children in the story were 11 and 12.

The 11-year-old found herself pregnant by the 12-year-old. Moon recounted that all was well because they were eventually married and are still married to this day. He used the story to back up his child marriage advocacy and to prove that torturing small bodies with forced pregnancy and marriage is a good thing.

Can I just say how incredibly disturbing it is to be required to pass laws to keep adults from marrying children in the first place…

In 2018, Senator Mike Moon voted “no” on a bill raising the minimum age to legally get married from 15 to 16.

In 2024 and 2025, Senator Mike Moon was the only Senator to vote “no” on legislation to ban child marriage in the state. The legislation passed anyway, and child marriage is now illegal in the state, no matter how much Moon may protest.

Advocating for child marriage and the death and suffering of pregnant women and girls should at least elicit questions on the fitness of a lawmaker and at most a search of his hard drive…

I am so sick of lawmakers like Mike Moon. Sick of the boot on my neck. Tired of fighting my own Representatives for my rights and dignity.

Where do we go from here?

As a Missourian, I can’t keep elected Republicans from proposing amendments and bills and laws that will harm the most vulnerable in the state, but I can make sure we make it more difficult for them to harm our neighbors…

I told you we live under authoritarianism in Missouri, but I know the way out: We have to contest the extremists. We have to fight for every seat. We have to run in races we know we will lose, because nothing will change Mike Moon or his colleagues on that side of the aisle except showing them the exit.

Running a race you’ll know you’ll lose is intimidating, but it can be done. Ask me how I know. We show up when we can’t win because eventually we will win.

The Republican extremists won’t stop until they are forced to stop. That looks like forcing them into a contested race. Forcing them out of the Capitol and into forums and debates in their districts. Forcing them to face their constituents who didn’t vote for any of this. Forcing their hand by forcing them to show up.

We can’t win if we don’t compete, and we can’t beat back authoritarianism if we don’t stand up and fight back.

Abortion is legal in this state, no matter how mad chicken-killing, child-bride advocating Mike Moon may be. We have rights, and one of those is the ballot. We chose our legislators, and they follow our will.

That only works if we give voters a choice.

Contest every seat on every ballot. Run everywhere.

No seat uncontested.

~Jess

P.S. I put my money where my mouth is. I am the Executive Director of Blue Missouri, and we crowdfund for Missouri down-ballot nominees. Last cycle, we raised over 220K for 48 nominees. This year, we are on track to support even more nominees with even more funding.

You can join our effort in funding the toughest districts in the state. Here is a link.