by Rep. Sonya Anderson
I want to offer some free advice to Missouri Democrats: if you want to make gains in Rural Missouri, it won’t help to attack Missouri’s agriculture industry.
Take for instance Mitch Wrenn of Marceline, who is challenging a colleague of mine, Rep. Tim Remole, in Northeast Missouri. Mr. Wrenn has taken an unconventional approach to rural campaigning by purchasing newspaper ads last winter, telling voters he supports a woman’s right to choose, expanding Medicaid, and increasing gun control.
Now, it doesn’t take a genius to know that those positions aren’t winning many voters over in a rural area. In fact, Mr. Wrenn may be doing more harm than good for statewide candidates like McCaskill, reminding voters that the Democrats that remain in rural areas often have a fairly progressive political view.
Last month, Mr. Wrenn attended a candidate forum hosted by the Macon County Farm Bureau. While there, he quoted the Missouri Rural Crisis Center and talked about the negative impact of raising livestock in the Show-Me State. This is a pretty remarkable talking point at a Farm Bureau meeting, but nonetheless, these are the positions of rural Democrats.
For those unfamiliar with the Missouri Rural Crisis Center (MRCC), it is a radical leftist group based in Columbia, MO that is funded by outside grants to oppose farmers and their way of life. Those funding MRCC include the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation based in New York City, a group that gives grants to environmental justice and abortion rights groups including NARAL. Other donors include Mark Zuckerberg-backed Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the Schmidt Family Foundation – a California group that backed Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” and the Tides Foundation, which received $3.5 million from George Soros and helped fund the Occupy Wall Street movement.
In Missouri, MRCC supports the expansion of Medicaid. They recently employed a “rural organizer” who previously worked as a community organizer for Planned Parenthood. Missouri Rural Crisis Center is not mainstream.
Earlier this year, another colleague of mine, Rep. Jay Houghton, filed an ethics complaint against MRCC for lobbying the legislature illegally without disclosure. In his complaint, Rep. Houghton alleged the organization may have been working to avoid disclosure for tax purposes.
The Missouri Rural Crisis Center is a far cry from the political positions of Missouri’s small towns and rural communities. Still, they are the ones providing talking points for Democrat candidates in rural areas statewide. MRCC’s values echo in candidates like Mr. Wrenn’s, but not in the hearts of rural Missourians.
Until Democrats can reflect the values of those of us in rural Missouri, they will continue to struggle to win our votes.
– Rep. Sonya Anderson is the Chair of the Missouri House Committee on Conservation and Natural Resources. She represents Missouri’s 131st District based in Greene County and is currently seeking a position of Chairman of the Republican Caucus in the Missouri House.
