JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Representative Ron Hicks, R-St. Peters, made a bold move in voting no on the recent right to work bill. The attention that he received from it has been validating and refreshing for the freshman Republican representative.
“The right to work issue is the one that I voted no on. I didn’t know that issue when I moved to this state. What I did was I started looking at both sides of the issue. Is one
right? I don’t think so. Is one wrong? I don’t think so.”
Though the issue was new to him, the initial feeling of alienation from voting against the party faded quickly.
“Once I got the national attention, it all changed. People that never came up to me last year and said, ‘good job’ or, ‘I’m proud of you’ or, ‘I respect what you are doing.’, but they have this year because they saw what I did. I voted no on a very, very rough topic in this building. It’s controversial beyond anything I’ve done in the two years that I’ve been here.”
“I’m a Republican. Some people are questioning that, but you know what? I wasn’t elected to vote the way that I want to or to follow my party all the time. I’m elected by the people of my district and they spoke up this year and they asked me to do something and I did it. I honored what they did for me – they put me into office,” said Hicks.
Hicks initially felt alienated when he took the vote against RTW, but now feels more validated.
“When I stood up and voted no, I went against my party for the first time. I went against my party and turmoil all of the sudden. Water started boiling. I was no longer in that ‘circle of trust’. Now I’m on the outside and it felt good when those members started coming up to me and telling me that I am not on outside – ‘you’re doing what’s right, you’re doing what your constituents want, you’re standing firm and strong on it, you’re not wishy-washy, you’re not on the fence, you’ve said no from the start and you’ve stuck that way, even after you were unopposed.’ That’s when it really started coming out – they saw that I was unopposed and I still stuck to my guns on it,” he said.
“I’ve had members come up to me this year and tell me that they respect what I have done – even if they are on the opposite side of it. One of the things they’ve said to me that ‘you’ve proved who you are,’” he said.
His suburban St. Louis district has shown more support for him since he took the vote. Between his campaign and the first and second years in office, the feedback has warmed because of his vote.
He said, “Even back home, some of the comments that were on my Facebook page were ‘of course you voted yes on this or that – you’re in the Speaker’s pocket’ or ‘you’re going to follow your party.’” Now though, he says the tone has changed.
“Even the ones that have said, ‘I didn’t vote for you last year, but I’ll vote for you this year. I misjudged you.’ I had quite a few doors slammed in my face when I said that I was a Republican. I’ve gotten letters from some of the doors that were slammed in my face apologizing, saying that they misjudged me, saying that maybe they should have listened to me – heard what I had to say.”
During Hicks’ first session of his first term, he was known for his friendship with Speaker of the House Tim Jones, R-Eureka.
“Maybe I was favored a little bit more last year, but I wouldn’t necessarily say that it was by Tim. It was necessarily by the body themselves just because that they saw that my friend is the Speaker of the House. He’s still my friend. He’s still speaker of the house. This year has changed. I had to show that I am my own man. I don’t need to hold Tim’s hand to get what I want. That’s not what I was here doing, that’s not what I want. Did I reap some of the benefits? Maybe. Did I get some bills passed last year? You bet. Did the Governor sign a couple of them? Yes, he did. Have I been able to do that again this year? Not one time. I did that on my own though. I took the stance. I said no when others were saying yes. I did that on my own and I still stand behind that.”
“Are we still friends? Of course we are. Do we disagree on certain issues? Yes, we do. One hundred percent,” he said of Jones’ and his relationship currently.
Many have recognized Rep. Hicks’ efforts to assert himself during his second year, even down to different eye glasses and suits.
“The biggest, boldest move that I made this year was stepping outside of the box, standing on my own two feet, and standing up for what I believe that my district wanted me to believe in and I have done that.”
Rachael Herndon was the editor at The Missouri Times and also produced This Week in Missouri Politics, published Missouri Times Magazine, and co-hosted the #MoLeg podcast. She joined The Missouri Times in 2014, returning to political reporting after working as a campaign and legislative staffer.
Rachael studied at the University of Missouri – Columbia. She lives in Jefferson City with her husband, Brandon, and their two children.
