I understand why people, on both the Democratic and Republican sides, choose not to run. I wish, though, that Democrats\u2014especially progressive Democrats– would at least try\u2014if only to counteract the right-wing message that dominates Missouri elections and politics. This year, especially with Donald Trump at the top of the ticket, there may be an opportunity for Dems to switch some seats\u2014but that won\u2019t happen when there\u2019s no one listed on the Democratic side of the ballot. It\u2019s sad for Missouri and for small-d democracy, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It has always been hard to unseat an incumbent candidate. The advantages of already possessing a legislative title like State Representative or State Senator<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2119,162,1683,119],"tags":[1269,229,887,2691,2690,2598],"yoast_head":"\n