By Ricky Dana, Candidate for U.S. House – Missouri’s 4th District
Governor Mike “Krooked” Kehoe has called a special session of the Missouri Legislature—and it’s not for the good of everyday Missourians. It’s to ram through bills that weaken your rights and bend our state’s future to the will of Trump and the Republican supermajority in Jefferson City.
First, Kehoe wants to make it harder for Missourians to petition their government and place measures on the ballot. This is a direct attack on the people’s voice. For generations, ballot measures have been a way for Missourians to bypass politicians who refuse to listen. Now, they want to silence you.
Second, Kehoe is pushing for a gerrymandered map designed to cheat nearly 40% of Missourians who vote Democrat out of fair representation. They already shorted us one seat in the past, and now they’re aiming to take another—handing Trump exactly what he wants while ignoring Missouri families.
If their plan succeeds, I’d be shifted into District 5. But let me be absolutely clear: district number or not, I will fight for all Missourians. I will always put the people of Missouri over politics or party. That’s my promise to you.
I’m Missouri born, Missouri grown, and Missouri strong. Born in Lafayette County, raised in Saline, lived in Cooper, Howard, Boone, and worked several years at Lincoln University’s College of Agriculture, Research and Extension. My friendships and family ties stretch across both districts. And what I hear from people in both parties is the same: they’re tired of division, tired of lies, tired of being pushed to the back seat while corporations and billionaires sit up front.
There are more of us than there are of them. And when I’m elected, I’ll carry that fight to Washington—for our farms, our families, and our future.
(📍Marshall, MO): Tomorrow, Mark “Awful for Missouri” Alford sneaks into Fitzgibbon Hospital for an unpublicized photo op. He didn’t announce it, didn’t invite the community, and didn’t put it on his schedule.
This is part of a bigger pattern. Alford has a pattern of keeping real constituent events off the record while only promoting the staged ones that suit him.
While he hides behind cameras, rural Missourians are left without answers. Fitzgibbon and other hospitals are struggling because of the votes he took in Washington — votes that cut healthcare access and put rural clinics at risk.
When I’m elected as your congressman, I won’t hide from the people I represent. I’ll show up in every county, answer questions directly, and work on solutions that actually help rural Missouri.
Sources:
Mark Alford’s official news & events page: https://alford.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx?DocumentTypeID=27
Missouri Independent – GOP food aid cuts impact: https://missouriindependent.com/2025/05/23/cuts-to-food-aid-endorsed-by-congressional-gop-could-cost-missouri-400-million/
Fitzgibbon Hospital official site: https://fitzgibbon.org/
Carefully assess the actions of Missouri’s governor, Republican members of the state legislature and our Congressional delegation. Then ask yourself: Whose priorities, interests and concerns have they supported, fought for and voted for?
Certainly not those of most Missourians.
Missourians voted for candidates in various elective offices to represent and fight for their interests in Jefferson City and Washington, D.C.
Instead, many of the Republican elected officials seem to have forgotten and folded to the pressure of supporting and carrying out the agenda of the Trump administration, whether it is in the best interest and well-being of Missouri citizens or not.
Look at the behavior of Missouri senators and representatives in Congress. While some bothered to proclaim that Medicaid should not be cut, at the end of the posturing they all went along with approving the Trump administration’s “Big Beautiful Bill.”
Essentially voting for the cuts in Medicaid funding that will deny tens of thousands of Missourians life-saving services. How many rural hospitals will be affected or forced to close in the coming months and years because of these cuts?
Their actions, or failures to act, are disturbing and disconcerting.
How is it that members of the Missouri congressional delegation can get away with the abdication of carrying out their governance and oversight responsibilities?
When it comes to allowing the Trump administration to usurp Congress’s power and arbitrarily disrupt, disband and defund departments that will negatively impact Missourians. First it was the department of education that was the target, cutting needed funding for school districts.
Our representatives in Congress have been silent and given tacit support to other actions of the Trump administration.
When it comes to the impact of increased tariffs on farmers being able to export their soybeans and other produce, and the higher cost of consumer goods across the board for families already struggling to make ends meet.
When it comes to immigration tactics that disrupt business operations, the workforce in agricultural industries and the lives of innocent family members.
When it comes to the short and long-term effects of taxation policies and the national debt, the burden of which Missourians like all Americans must bear.
When there is no oversight, no checks and balanced guardrails, how can we be confident that the policies and decisions being made will be in our best interest?
The actions of our Republican governor, Republican-controlled state legislature and other government offices are in lock-step with the Trump administration as well.
An executive order adopted and ensured the implementation of dismantling DEI programs throughout governmental departments and agencies, colleges and universities, and wherever the state had authority to issue a mandate. Businesses have been sued by the state attorney general for apparent noncompliance.
What measures are being implemented to ensure that all Missourians are treated equal and have equal access and equal opportunity? A state with a diverse population base, who is helped or hurt?
The latest influence of President Trump on what goes on in Missouri is his request for the legislature to draw a new map to eliminate one of the two Democratic congressional districts to help ensure that the Republicans maintain the majority in the House after the 2026 midterm elections.
Such a move, if successful, would eliminate the congressional district that represents Kansas City and some adjacent counties, thereby diminishing or negating the impact the representation and vote of a large number of constituents, including large minority groups.
Congressional districts are usually revisited or redrawn following the U.S. Census taken every 10 years that tracks population shifts and other changes. Redrawing districts mid-cycle or in an off year is solely to provide a political advantage for one party or the other.
Missouri has six Republican and two Democratic Congressional districts.
Every Missourians should think about the meaning of the political move to change that to 7 to 1.
Fundamentally, elected officials, irrespective of their party affiliations, should represent all constituents living within their electoral boundaries despite the racial and ethnic make-up or how they may have voted.
Likewise, representative government means just that. It should represent, as best as possible, all the people it governs.
As there is growing disapproval of President Trump and many of his policies by most recent polls, why are Republican state leaders continuing to bow to the pressure of jumping on an increasingly unpopular Trump agenda?
It behooves each of us to ask a critical question.
Who, among our state Republican elected officials, is standing steadfast to promote, protect and put the priorities of Missourians first amid this national political morass?
Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: [email protected].
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