(From Missi Hesketh, Democratic Candidate for 7th District Congress)Some of you may already know this, but I am running for U.S. Congress to represent the Missouri 7th Congressional District. Our District is essentially all of SWMO - 9 1/2 counties.
Running for Congress was NOT on my 2024 bingo card, but some events last Fall made me act. I want to share them with you so that you have some background when making your choice for Rep on Nov. 5.
It wasn't until Congress ousted Speaker McCarthy and our current Rep was supporting Jim Jordan to replace McCarthy that I started paying attention to what kind of representation we are getting. Knowing that Jordan supported the events leading up to and on January 6, I was appalled that our Rep would continue our nation down that path.
Shortly after the Speaker of the House debacle, our current Rep was quite literally celebrating a 39% reduction to the EPA. The MO 7th is one of the most beautiful areas in the country and our natural resources - water, soil, air - are paramount to our health and tourism and agriculture economies. That large of a cut and his cheering it on was startling to me.
When I learned that there was a Bill introduced to eliminate the Windfall Elimination Provision/Government Pension Offset (WEP/GPO), which reduces public servants' social security benefits by 60% if they have worked in the private sector but then retire with a pension (2.1 million Americans are impacted by this).
Our current Rep refused to sign on to this enormously bi-partisan bill - I think 335 members wound up co-signing. Congress has since gotten a discharge petition passed and forced a vote. It's coming, but of zero help from our Rep.
Those three things were enough to get me calling around to see who was going to run against the incumbent in 2024. No one knew of anyone who was willing to do it. And, as you may know how I dislike uncontested races, here I am.
Late this past winter, our current Rep came out in support of the school voucher program. That's the program that takes public tax dollars and allows families to use vouchers to send their kids to private school, most often religious schools. Problem is that is going to cause serious issues for school budgets - from transportation to staffing to impacts to extracurriculars like sports. I know this because I reached out to several superintendents after the current Rep spoke out. (Fact check me with your school administrations and school boards.)
Also, those private schools don't have to have certified staff AND they don't have to accept students with special needs. And some private schools in other states who have initiated the voucher program are actually raising their rates, thereby taking the tax dollars and then those families have to pay out of pocket anyway. It's a scam.
I am a 20-year veteran educator, and I fully support public schools because I honestly know how vital our schools are to uniting communities, providing not only an education for students but oftentimes extra food, counseling, interventions, mentoring, so many things to help make sure students are in a position to succeed.
And as a teacher, I understand (much more so now with 20 years under my belt than when I first started), how so many families are dealing with poverty, addiction, incarceration, grandparents raising grandkids, and disabilities. I will ALWAYS support our public schools!
Another aspect of supporting public schools and society as a whole is my drive to keep kids and everyone safe from gun violence. I support the 2nd amendment and totally get how important it is to so many of us in SWMO to own guns, especially for hunting but also to want to protect our own families.
What I don't want are anymore school shootings facilitated by a lack of wait time, or lack of background checks, or lack of red flag laws, or at the very least from a lack of having firearms secured away from child access.
Gun violence is the number one cause of death in children. And these mass shootings are having a damning effect on our kids' emotionally and we have got to make some common sense changes. The current Rep only stokes people's fears by saying he is all in for 2A. He has no ability to empathize with the aftermath of swatting events or actual lockdowns. I do.
And while there is a slew of other drastic differences between myself and the incumbent, the final one I want to share here is that he has asked for ZERO earmarks to bring federal dollars back to SWMO to make our lives better. Zero. That is part of the job of a member of Congress - to try and bring dollars back for innovation and/or jobs.
Many of you know how I have worked to find money to make improvements to our little town. I would NEVER NOT TRY, knowing how limited our small-town budgets are and how we have serious need for improvements.
Since filing, I have traveled all over the district and met so many wonderful people. Like, sooo many! There are many small communities just like Forsyth that have been left to kind of crumble without a sufficient budget to innovate and keep up. Our problems are not unique. We all need that help and we all need a Representative who will work for us - regardless of party, regardless of zip code, regardless of donor status.
I want to help end the divisiveness that has become the norm. I want to see the door close on the 118th Congress - possibly the LEAST productive Congress ever (due in part to our current Reps own self-aggrandizing partisan posturing), and get some work done for US!
I ask you to consider voting for me this Nov. 5. And I'll happy answer any questions you may have. Thanks for reading.
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