To Jake Hummel, the biggest accomplishment of 2018 was not a bill he got passed or a specific budget item he advocated for, rather it a million Missourians coming together and making their collective voices heard loud and clear.
The union electrician turned state senator points to the overwhelming defeat of right-to-work at the ballot box as what he is most proud of.
“It matters not only to union families across the state but also to any working man or woman in Missouri that we make sure that businesses are able to run their business in a way they see fit, but also that workers are able to retain their right to have collective bargaining representation,” said Hummel.
The St. Louis lawmaker was first elected to the Missouri House in 2008. Hummel was elected in 2016 to the state Senate in a special election to finish out the remaining two years of former-Sen. Joe Keaveny, who resigned to take a judgeship.
In his decade serving in the Missouri General Assembly, Hummel has been a driving force advocating for the rights of workers. He has served as the secretary-treasurer of Missouri AFL-CIO since 2014.
To Hummel, the Proposition A vote showed that Missouri not only cares that businesses have the ability to flourish but workers in the state also have the ability to flourish.
“I think it sends a good signal out there that the right way to move forward is to retain good-paying jobs and making sure that our businesses succeed by having access to a highly skilled and educated workforce,” said Hummel.
As part of the 99th General Session, he also pushed for modifications to braille requirements. Hummel noted that some school districts were denying students with degenerative eye conditions the ability to receive instruction in braille. He worked to change that.
The problem was that students that were not already completely blind — even in cases where the student was expected to lose eyesight completely — school districts had the ability to not provide a braille instructor. In 2018 that changed. The legislature made changes to ensure that parents if they wished to go down that route, could get access for their child to get instruction in braille.
“[It] speaks to the Missouri Senate that when there is an issue, regardless of party, when there is a problem everyone can recognize there is the ability to work across the aisle to get those things done,” said Hummel.
Aside from big ticket items that matter to the individual parties, the Senate is more like a family than anything Hummel has experienced. Each Senator in the chamber represents that same amount of Missourians. All Senators have ideas and issues that are important to them and their constituents, and it is through building relationships with each person and listening to them that they can work together to solve problems.
“If you don’t work together, one Senator’s ability to derail legislation kind of keeps everyone playing in the same sandbox,” said Hummel. “Overtime friendships have grown, trust has grown and while we may disagree on major policy issues there are times when we are all willing to stand up for one another. I think if we had more of that we would be in a much better off.”
Hummel will be replaced in January by Sen.-elect Karla May, who was elected in November. He plans to focus on his role as Secretary-Treasurer for the Missouri AFL-CIO and fighting for workings issues and workers rights.
“I still have my friends in the building and I’ll still be up in Jefferson City fighting, it will just be in a different role,” said Hummel.
This piece is featured as part of the Missouri Times’ Best of the Legislature 2018 appearing in the January 2019 Missouri Times Magazine.
Alisha Shurr was a reporter for The Missouri Times and The Missouri Times Magazine. She joined The Missouri Times in January 2018 after working as a copy editor for her hometown newspaper in Southern Oregon. Alisha is a graduate of Kansas State University.
