Missouri has produced great people who are a credit to our state and are known for their legacy of public service. Towering figures like Harry Truman, John Danforth, Thomas Eagleton, Dick Gephardt, Mel Carnahan, and Stuart Symington who\u2019ve undeniably contributed in a meaningful way. Objectively speaking, great Missourians who we can all be proud of. Congresswoman Ann Wagner [R-MO CD 2] is not one of those great Missourians. Perhaps there was a time she could\u2019ve been, but the Faustian bargain she has made with Donald Trump has divested her of whatever dignity she could\u2019ve hoped to muster after what was an already lackluster congressional career.<\/p>\n

In October 2016, Ann Wagner had the chance to stand on the right side of history with essentially no consequences. Donald Trump had just been heard on audio describing the ease at which he could commit sexual assault because \u201cWhen you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.\u201d Wagner was running for re-election in a not especially competitive congressional district (which is true no longer) and had staked her career on fighting human sex trafficking. Wagner had every reason and arguably every responsibility to speak out against this candidate whose entire being dripped with misogyny.<\/p>\n

She did speak out for those very reasons:<\/p>\n

As a strong and vocal advocate for victims of sex trafficking and assault, I must be true to those survivors and myself and condemn the predatory and reprehensible comments of Donald Trump, I withdraw my endorsement and call for Governor Pence to take the lead.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This was a bold statement from a sitting congresswoman and could\u2019ve been something that her constituents, many of them women, could\u2019ve been proud of…it she hadn\u2019t reneged on her position less than a month later.<\/p>\n

Wagner, days before the election, appeared on disgraced St. Louis conservative Jamie Allman\u2019s radio program to declare:<\/p>\n

I have always been voting for Donald Trump, and I will do that next Tuesday, and I encourage everyone listening to vote for Trump as well.\u201d She continued, \u201cI don\u2019t know why there has been some, perhaps some confusion here, but since last May, after Donald Trump released his list of Supreme Court justices, I made it clear that I am voting for Donald Trump. I want an entire ticket sweep up and down.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Since the 2016 election, Wagner has missed no opportunity to appear beside the President at bill signings and public events. Wagner\u2019s sycophantic praises of the Trump administration, as well as the way she has clung to the McConnell\/Trump agenda is baffling, considering there were about 177 GOP-held seats that gave the President a larger margin of victory than he received in Missouri\u2019s 2nd. Therefore, it stands to reason that Wagner has tied herself to President Trump (voting with his position 96.6% of the time) because she thinks her constituents can be placated simply by the fact that she\u2019s a die-hard Trump Republican. Wagner seems to have this notion that she doesn\u2019t have to lower herself and meet with her constituents because (a) her conservative record inspires fundraisers, and (b) she thinks it\u2019s enough to just be a reliable Republican vote and not necessarily represent the diverse views of the district.<\/p>\n

In her three terms as a congresswoman, Wagner has never held a town hall meeting and has refused to debate democratic opponents. Her absence is so noticeable in the district that it has become an ongoing joke with all the Democratic candidates currently vying for the democratic nomination. One candidate, Cort VanOstran, frequently posts \u201cWhere\u2019s Ann?\u201d followed by his daily schedule declaring that voters can always find out \u201cWhere\u2019s Cort.\u201d Which is admittedly corny, but it wouldn\u2019t work if Wagner didn\u2019t have such a major communication problem. It\u2019s a criticism that has stuck, at the Webster Groves 4^{th<\/sup> of July parade, Wagner made a very brief appearance but didn\u2019t appear at the end of the parade route. At the Gateway Arch re-opening, Wagner arrived for the ribbon cutting but was gone very soon after. When she does address voters, it\u2019s exclusively at Republican township meetings and not the open forums that even notoriously reticent politicians like Mitch McConnell attend<\/a><\/u>.<\/p>\n}

Wagner may not know it yet; however, I suspect she does after the release of her most recent ad that is intended to \u201cre-introduce her to voters\u201d (a problem she wouldn\u2019t have if she showed up, but this election will likely be the fight of her political life.) It has always been true in politics that representatives shouldn\u2019t forget the people who sent them to Washington, because it will eventually come back to haunt them. That\u2019s true in not traditionally competitive states like Indiana, where Sen. Richard Lugar lost a Republican primary because of votes to confirm Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court and to support the DREAM ACT. It\u2019s even more true at the congressional level: Remember that Eric Cantor was defeated in his primary and lost his chance to become Speaker of the House. Wagner occupies a seat that is about 9% more Republican leaning than the nation as a whole, and several independent agencies have rated Missouri\u2019s 2nd as competitive. Ann Wagner will not be defeated in her primary, but her lack of connection with her constituents and loyalty to a man whom 45% of Missourians<\/a><\/u> (many in her own suburban district) disapprove of in a year of democratic energy If I worked for the Missouri GOP I\u2019d start reading the writing on the wall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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